


Reversed Fates

by Meanken



Series: Reversed Fates Series [1]
Category: Devil May Cry
Genre: Alternate Universe, Complete, Devil May Cry 3, Gen, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-26
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-02-04 18:47:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 34,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18610369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meanken/pseuds/Meanken
Summary: For almost their whole lives, the Sons of Sparda have held a deep seated grudge against one another, a rivalry that eclipses even the greatest of their foes in legend. Yet, fate is a strange thing, and one wonders. Would the fates of the Sons of Sparda play out differently, had they but been in each other's places on the day that dictated the course of their lives?





	1. Preperations

"That day, if our positions were switched..."

"Would our fates be different?"

"Would I lead your life, and you mine?"

* * *

_Hello, and welcome. This fanfic was, as anyone who has played DMC5 can tell from the above line, inspired by a simple idea. What if the roles of the game were swapped? What if it had been Vergil in the house on that fateful day, and Dante who was outside? How would this change history, and the people involved? Well, you'll have to read on to find out._

_A few notes before I begin. Firstly, this fanfic is focused on the events of DMC3, which as both the first game in the timeline and the one most heavily focused on the rivalry between the two brothers, it will naturally be my focus. Prior knowledge of the events of DMC3 will not be needed, but it's nice to know what actually happened so you can fully appreciate the changes. Also, don't expect me to fully write out every last boss fight in full detail. I don't see much point to that. There are some fights I will do, but if you see a cut to the end for some, don't be shocked._

_This first chapter is mostly going to be setup, so apologies if it's a bit heavy on descriptions._

_Also, as a final disclaimer, any similarities between the Dante shown here and the infamous Reboot Dante, known by fans as "Donte", are completely unintentional. I have not and do not ever plan to play the reboot, and this will be the last time I even mention it exists._

_With all that said, let us begin._

* * *

It began in a nightclub. Not the kind of place the man who was now entering it generally frequented, but today was a special day. After years of work, painstaking research, and a not inconsiderable amount of risk, the pieces were all ready. All he had left to do was move the pawns into their starting positions. One would require no effort from him, she had been nipping at his heels for years, he would be truly shocked if this changed now. Another, he was confident could be baited into coming where he was needed easily enough. It was the third pawn that he was going to have to work for, as this one, he required the cooperation of, at least for the time being.

And so he entered the club. He was a bald man with heterochromia, one eye red and the other blue, dressed in unremarkable black clothing that brought to mind the image of a simple man who was of no particular threat. His face, however, did him no favors, as it had an ugly, unnatural looking brown scaring that looked more like a stain on his face then anything done by a weapon. And if one stared too long at it, they might even catch a glimpse of it moving. The only other thing of note was a plain book that he gently grasped in his hands.

The various patrons of the club gave this strange man a number of looks. Some wondered if he had anything worth stealing. Others assumed him some kind of skinhead. None of the looks were terribly friendly. He ignored them all, and searched the room. He did not see the man he wanted, which meant he was at the private balcony seating upstairs. A good bit of luck, this was not a conversation he wished to have in public. He turned, and walked up the stairs.

He saw the man he was looking for as soon as he reached the top. A man with unkept white hair in a red coat sat in the center of the large sofa, with his bare chest showing under it. On his neck, a necklace that had a red stone attached to it was visible. On either side of him sat a woman in a dress, and in front of him was a box of pizza and some beer. He was busy kissing one of the women as the man approached, and continued to do so until the man cleared his throat, drawing his attention and causing him to look up at the man.

"I'm a little busy, pops. Mind waiting till I leave before you try to convert me to whatever it is you do?"

The man shook his head. "I am not here for that. I am here to speak to you, Dante, son of the Legendary Dark Knight, Sparda. It involves your brother."

Dante's eyes narrowed, and he looked at one of the girls. "Take a hike."

Sensing the change in the atmosphere, both girls quickly walked away. The man continued. "I seek your assistance with a job. One you are well suited to. I assure you the compensation is-"

He paused as Dante suddenly reached into his coat and pointed a black pistol at the man's head.

"You know, your ugly mug kind of reminds me of a raisin. I'm already tired of looking at it. Cash ain't everything, and I don't like strangers who know my personal business. Give me one good reason not to improve the world's overall gene pool by removing your ugly ass from it."

"Simple." The man said, unflinching in the face of the gun. "I have a plan, one that I believe you will be interested in. For I plan to draw your brother to this place. And I wish for you to fight him. Something you have done much of in the past."

There was a long, tense moment. Then Dante spun his gun, and put it away. He waved for him to take a seat. "Go on. But first, you got a name?"

"Arkham." He said as he sat. "Now, let me explain in detail what I plan to do….."

* * *

The place was named Fortuna. A curious island nation which was remarkable for a single reason. Their local religion and holy order, known as the Order of the Sword, worshiped a demon. Specifically, the Legendary Dark Knight, Sparda. A legend that was well known. Long ago, the human world was ruled over by the demon world. And then, 2000 years past, a demon by the name of Sparda rose up in rebellion against the demons, siding with humanity. He single handly pushed back the demons, and sealed them away, separating them into separate worlds. It would simply seem this order took the legend more seriously then most.

Not that the man who had been drawn by these rumors didn't understand why. After all, he knew it was all true, as one of Sparda's twin sons. No doubt he stood out in this place, between his slicked back white hair, his blue coat and the katana he was carrying around on his hip. A fact that had worked against him here, as it seemed someone had caught onto his identify, if the 3 men who were doing a poor job of hiding the fact that they were trailing him for the past hour were any indication. His investigation had told him little he had not already assumed, and so it was now time for him to depart, before the humans did something unwise and he would be forced to withdraw using force. Still, he thought, remembering where he had woken up this morning, it had not been all bad. A shame he would be unlikely to return to this city anytime in the foreseeable future.

He looked back over his shoulder, and noticed immediately that his tail had vanished. Where had they gone? He had not made an effort to shake them yet, there was no reason they should have lost him outside of sheer incompetence, and while that was never something to put past anyone-

"Greetings." Vergil turned back to see Arkham standing in front of him, and he was instantly on guard. No human should have been fast enough to move behind him in the span of 3 seconds without his notice. "Are you Vergil? Son of Sparda?"

Vergil's hand reached down, gripping the hilt of his sword as Arkham walked so he was just behind a parked motorcycle, placing a hand on it. "And if I am?"

"Your brother sent me." This caused his eyebrow to raise. The man before him hardly looked like someone Dante would ever willingly associate with. "He sends his regards, and an invitation. Please, accept it."

And then he threw the motorcycle at Vergil with one hand. In a single motion, Vergil drew his blade and sliced it clean in two, causing the two halves to fly behind him. In the time this took, while his view was blocked, the man had vanished. Where he had been standing, a sealed envelope sat. Taking a moment to look around and ensure Arkham was not waiting in ambush, he sheathed his blade, and walked over, picking up the envelope and opening it. Inside, in Dante's poor excuse for handwriting, was written the name of a city, with the additional message of

"See you there, Bro."

* * *

In an old, run down hotel room, a girl was making final preparations. She had short, black hair, an expression that for years had been permanently set to "angry", and she had heterochromia, one eye red and the other blue. Usually, she'd be more picky with her choice of bed, or at least find somewhere with clean sheets, but today was an exception to the rule. For years, she had been tracking a man, one of the most evil, despicable bastards she'd ever had the misfortune of knowing. Arkham. A man who also happened to be her father. Over the years, she had gotten to know his patterns, patterns that ensured she was always a step behind him, but no closer. He was always on the move, rarely in one place for very long, and on the few occasions she managed to get close, something always happened to delay her. He was an evil bastard, but he wasn't stupid.

Only now, those patterns had suddenly changed. He'd been back and forth out of a single city multiple times, and his usual efforts to hide his tracks had stopped. She was only a day's drive away from his believed current position. That meant one of two things. He was trying to draw her in. Or he believed he no longer had to hide. Regardless, she was going, and whatever happened when she got there, she'd deal with it. She looked around the room, covered in the stink of gunpowder and leftover dirt from the maintenance she'd done on her armory last night. Another advantage of staying in a dirty room, there was zero expectation she was going to clean after herself. She buttoned up her long sleeved, white shirt, adjusted her belt of ammo pouches that was covering a pair of short shorts, and made sure her red boots were lased up.

Then she reached for her guns and started to put them in their spots. A pair of pistols went in holsters attached to her boots, a pair of sub machine guns went on her front and back hip, a handheld repeating crossbow went on her leg, and her trusty custom built missile launcher, the Katalina Ann, went over her back. Satisfied she was ready, she left the room, walked outside, and mounted her motorcycle. She kicked the throttle and drove off, ready for whatever may come.


	2. Arrival

At first, it seemed a normal occurrence. An earthquake, and nothing more. Perhaps worse than a typical one, but nothing new for the people in this area. Then, the ground started to part. Streets were broken in half, cars, people, whole buildings being swept into the abyss, never to be seen again. And in the center of this, a colossal tower started to rise. Within moments, it had risen higher than the tallest building, and it only continued to rise higher and higher, seemingly endless.

After what felt like minutes, if finally came to a halt. The earthquakes subsided, and for a brief moment, it would seem the event was over. And then the demons started to pour out of the tower, and it became clear to everyone that the nightmare had only just begun.

* * *

Up on the top of the tower, Arkham and Dante stood. Even from this position, miles above the city, they could still hear the distant screams of a person, or the inhuman screeches of a demon. Dante had, on his own whim, carried a reclining beach chair, a pair of binoculars, and several boxes of pizza all the way up to the top of the tower on his own, an act which Arkham choose to ignore. Commenting would only encourage the half demon. Besides which, he was busy with his own...quirks.

"Well?" He said, turning toward Dante, who was busy looking into his binoculars. "Doesn't it excite you? The Temen-ni-gru has revived. The great one, who once ruled this earth as the medium between the human world, and the demon world."

Dante loudly yawned at this unrequested exposition, yet he continued.

"Isn't it a magnificent view? The greatest minds of their time, those who revered Evil, constructed this glorious edifice." He clenched his fist, clearly not about to stop, and then swept his hand across the city. "Now, after two millenniums of confinement, it can at least fulfill the purpose for which it was intended-"

"Get a room." Arkham blinked, then looked at Dante, who lowered his binoculars to look at Arkham. "Seriously, scarface, I'm not gonna judge you for your kinks, but I don't give a damn. I don't wanna hear about em. Because now, all I can think is that this whole tower business is just you seriously overcompensating for something. You need to get laid, you know that?"

He lifted the binoculars back up to his face. "Now, where are you, Vergil?"

"He was quite some ways away from this place when I gave him the message. By now, he is likely almost here. Be patient. Think of it this way, by the time he arrives, most of these people will be dead. Meaning nothing to distract him from your battle."

Dante grunted, and reached for a slice of pizza. He had a feeling he was gonna be here a while.

* * *

**Several Hours Later**

Somewhere in the city, a man in a brown cloak that was wrapped around his body slowly strode toward the tower. He had, naturally, saw the tower long before he reached the city limits. It was difficult to miss. He knew what it was, as well. He had seen mention of this tower, the Temen-ni-gru, in several texts that he had read in the past. He suspected already, just based on those, what was going on. But one thing he was sure of. His brother was not the mastermind behind this plot. Most likely, the other man who had drawn him here was. And if that was the case, he had to have a reason to bring him here. He could have easily chosen not to show himself, and Vergil would be none the wiser.

His thoughts were broken as he heard the sound of an engine behind him, the first sign of any life he had heard since his arrival. He showed no sign that he had noticed and kept walking, in the vain hope they would ignore him. He was attempting to avoid attracting attention until his hand was forced. He knew his brother was likely watching for his arrival. Alas, he had no luck, as the engine slowed as it neared him, coming to a stop next to him, at which point he sighed, and stopped himself.

"First survivor I've seen." A female voice said from the bike. Vergil turned his head slightly to look at her without turning toward her fully, and saw a woman armed with more guns then he'd ever seen on any one person. "But you're going in the wrong direction. Unless you have a death wish, I guess."

"I have business here."

She raised an eyebrow at the man. "Business? Take a look around you, idiot. This city's already been practically wiped off the map. Some unarmed guy just walking in is going to get slaughtered." She said, unable to see his katana underneath his cloak. "What the hell could be so important that-"

"Family." A single word which stopped her cold, and caused her to look down at the ground for a moment. When she lifted her head back up, Vergil had already started moving, and she was just in time to see him slip through a small gap in an alleyway that she had no hope of going through with her bike.

"Good luck." She muttered to herself before she kicked her bike back into gear and drove off in another direction.

* * *

Back on the top of the tower, Dante was chuckling to himself as Arkham walked over to him.

"I take it you've seen for yourself?"

"He's here." Dante said with a nod as he watched Vergil, having now discarded his cloak, battle against a bunch of black cloaked demons holding scythes. They had a name, not that Dante was the kind of person to bother remembering them. "I get it, he wants to be fashionably late, but my pizza's already cold." He looked around a little more, and then spotted something else. "Hello, beautiful. There's a hot chick on a bike down there who's got more guns on then clothing. Looks pissed at something. But I guess that's what happens when you decide to get your rocks off killing a city, ain't that right, Scarface?"

He shook his head. "Actually, I happen to be acquainted with that woman. "

"Oh? I don't actually care what beef she has with you, so don't talk my ear off for another 5 minutes. Hate people who talk more than I do."

"Then I will spare you. Know only that for the time being, I require her alive. Once I have finished my business with her, you may do what you wish with the woman. Consider it...a bonus."

He turned and left without another word, and Dante shrugged, grabbing another slice of cold pizza and returning to the show.

* * *

Vergil came to a halt in front of what was clearly the massive entrance to the tower. He had been forced to cut his way through a number of demons, and he was sure that Dante was now aware he was here. Yet, that was in the future. For now, he felt a massive presence within the room ahead of him. He took a moment to prepare himself, and then stepped into the room.

Instantly, there was a noticeable drop in temperature, and looking around the large, circular room, it would appear as if he had just stepped inside of a freezer, to the point where frost had formed on many of the walls around him. In front of him was the clear threat. A frozen wall with 3 dog heads on it. He allowed 3 seconds. After that, the room started shaking, and the wall slowly shattered as the frozen dogs awoke, and broke free of the wall, revealing the door behind it, and the fact that the three heads were all attached to one gigantic body which was chained to the wall behind him. It gave a loud roar.

"Leave now, mortal!" It yelled from one of its three heads. "The likes of you are forbidden in this land! You who are powerless are not worthy to set foot here!"

By this point, the dog had walked forward as far as the chains would allow, and was all but spitting in Vergil's face as he yelled. Vergil showed no reaction to this at all.

"I do not take orders from mere guard dogs." He said as he ran his hand through his hair to fix it.

"You, a mere human, make a mockery of me!?"

The front head released a beam of ice, and then suddenly, in a flash of blue, Vergil vanished, reappearing just to the left of the beam as it blew past him and caused the front door to become encased in thick ice. Vergil raised a finger and shook it back and forth.

"I believe there is some confusion here. But this will not be resolved by mere words."

He unsheathed his katana an inch.

"Let us see what you are made of."

* * *

Outside the tower, the woman on a bike pulled to a stop as, after numerous delays due to a number of blocked or destroyed roads forced her to make a number of detours, she had finally reached the front of the tower. Only now a new problem presented itself, as the door appeared to have been frozen over somehow. She dismounted the bike and approached it, trying to get a feel for how thick it was. As she neared it, she could very slightly see inside, just enough to see shadows of what was going on, and it seemed there was a fight going on inside, or at least that's what it looked like to her. Still, if she could tell that much, the ice must not have been that thick. She looked around, and saw a convenient bit of rubble that could function as a makeshift ramp that happened to be pointing up at the top of the frozen gate, which seemed to be less thick then the bottom. Making up her mind, she turned and started walking back to her bike.

* * *

Inside, the fight was nearing its end. At some point, the dog had become enraged, and was now glowing red and recklessly attacking. This would be a problem for most people. But Vergil had always prided himself on precision strikes and reading his opponent for openings, and while aggressive, the dog was also proving himself to be predictable. Dodging out of the way of ice that was falling from the ceiling, Vergil teleported to the far end of the room. The dog once again roared, and ran at him. As it reached the limits of its chains, Vergil teleported into the air, narrowly avoiding its fangs, and delivered a brutal falling strike with his sword aimed directly at the neck of one of the heads. The head proceeded to come off, and exploded into shards, vanishing.

The dog jumped back, and responded by smashing one of its paws into the ground, causing ice to grow across the ground and at Vergil. Vergil once again teleported, this time in front of a head, and while he was open, he drew his katana again and delivered a very swift series of slashes at it, ending with a final, stronger slash that caused the head to shatter. He took a moment after this to kneel and slowly sheath his katana as the last head stared at him.

"You are not human, are you?"

Vergil rose, and looked at him. "I am a son of Sparda. His blood flows through my veins. And if I am not mistaken, it was he who placed you here, to guard this place."

"Yes." He said, lowering its head.

"You have served him well. But now, it is time for the hound to yield."

"You have proven your strength. I acknowledge your ability. Take my soul and go forth. You have my blessing."

Vergil held out his hand as the dog vanished, and a frozen nunchuck with three ends appeared in his hand. He examined the weapon, gave it a few test swings to judge its power, then nodded. The weapon vanished, and would appear again when he willed it. He began to stride forward, toward the door, when suddenly, the upper half of the ice behind him shattered. He stopped and turned to find the woman from earlier crashing through the ice, landing and drifting to a stop so that her back was to him.

"You again." Vergil said. Without any warning, the woman suddenly drew her rocket launcher, spun it so it was pointing behind her at Vergil, and then fired it. Vergil stared, unimpressed, and then at the last moment before it impacted him, swung his sheathed sword, swatting the missile away with it and causing it to impact the ceiling above the door, creating a noticeable hole. The woman, having turned after firing, saw this happen, and her eyes narrowed.

"You...you're not human, are you?" Vergil glared at her, not responding. "Here I thought when I saw you a second ago that you were just some crony of his who was late. But it turns out you're just a demon. And to think for a second, I actually believed what you said out there."

"I wasn't lying."

"A demon, with a family?" She snorted. "That's rich. Well, today's your lucky day, demon, because I don't have any more time to waste killing you. Keep the hell out of my way, because the next time I see you, I'll kill you."

She gunned the throttle on her bike, and drove forward. Vergil did not move as she yanked hard on her handlebars, somehow managing to jump over him and inside the hole above the door, driving into it and away. Vergil turned toward the door, pausing to make one observation to himself before he walked through it.

"She shares his eyes."


	3. An Unexpected Encounter

Vergil stepped forward, and found himself in a truly colossal entrance hall. It was large and round, with a series of spiral stairs going up to various doors, and beyond those, other stairs that were not accessible from the ground that he would no doubt have to go through other doors just to get to. He couldn't even see the top of the room. This was clearly going to take him a while to climb. And so he started up the first set of stairs to begin the climb.

* * *

On the top of the tower, Dante yawned. He was bored. Arkham had told him to wait up here for Vergil to show up for the fight. And while this was a good place to have a fight, it was going to take Vergil at least an hour to get up here. Not to mention, he was already getting a bit tired of that smug face of Arkham's. He needed to do something in the meantime. Something to shake things up, something to show Arkham that he wasn't just gonna sit around and be his errand boy.

And then an idea came to him. He slowly nodded, thinking it over a few times, and satisfied with what his idea would do and what could result from it. He got up off of his beach chair, reached for his large broadsword with a skull on the hilt, put it on his back, and started walking, leaving the top of the tower.

* * *

A few minutes later, Dante entered the room he was looking for, and instantly winced as two heads on swords started talking.

"He's back!"

"Have you reconsidered our offer?"

"Please, take us with you!"

"We can-"

"SILENCE!" He yelled at the top of his lungs to shut them up. "Agni. Rudra. I have a job for you two."

"What is it?"

"Name it!"

"We have an intruder. Some human woman, don't know who she is, don't really care. She's taking the other path up here. So I need you two to go down to the other path, and take care of her."

They looked at each other a moment, confused.

"But..."

"Who will watch the door then?"

"Our charge for 2000 years has been to guard this door."

"We cannot abandon it now!"

_That's the point, you idiots. Don't want to have to wait an extra 5 minutes for Vergil, and if he kills you, he'll get a new toy. Don't want that if I can help it._  "Uh huh. But you two were just begging me a second ago to come with me. Who's watching the door if you do that?" They looked at each other with open mouths, clearly having never considered this. "Tell you what. How about we make a deal? Kill her, and bring me that fancy looking rocket launcher-"

He looked at them, realizing they had no idea what he was talking about.

"-the big metal stick with the sharp end on it that she's carrying around, and I'll let you two come with me."

"Yes!"

"We accept!"

"Good, good. Why don't you two get moving then? Don't want to keep her waiting."

Their bodies, separate from their heads, stood up, grabbed the swords each of their heads were attached to, and started walking away. Dante shook his head at how easy it was. He'd removed a roadblock and a potential source of weapons from Vergil's path, demonstrated to Arkham how much of a shit he gave about his orders, and this girl would either die, in which case she probably wasn't worth Dante's attention outside of that fancy looking weapon he wanted, or she'd survive, and if she managed to kill them, then things might get really interesting. He turned around and walked back out. He'd go up a bit, and wait to see who won this little fight.

* * *

Downstairs, meanwhile, having been forced at some point to leave her bike behind, said woman was busy shooting lesser demons in the face. These demons, among the lowest class of demons who lurked in the tower, were called Hell Prides. Skeletal like beings who were dressed in cloaks of black and who used scythes as main weapons. They were not faring well against their prey, as one was finding out as its throat was stepped on and two swift bullets were delivered to its head. She spun back around to keep shooting, only to find that the remaining demons were slowly backing up away from her. At first, she thought this was only because they were naturally afraid of being shot. Then she heard voices behind her.

"Do you think she's the one, brother?"

"She must be! How many other humans do you think are wandering around the tower?"

Seeing the Hell Prides turn and leave at a full run, she turned around slowly, keeping her pistols up and pointing at the new threats behind her. Two large demon bodies with no heads, one red and the other blue, were holding large swords with heads attached to them. Hardly the weirdest thing she'd seen from demons.

"Sending demons after me personally now, is he? Guess that means I'm getting close." She looked past them at the door behind them, doing some mental calculations. These demons looked tougher then the rabble she'd been fighting, and time wasted fighting them was time she'd be allowing him to flee. But this was a rather narrow hallway, and even if she managed to jump over them, she suspected they'd just chase her, which would only be worse if she bumped into something else.

"Should we ask her to leave?"

"No, we were told to kill her, not send her away, remember?"

"Think it'll be that easy?" She asked as she took a moment to reload her pistols, sensing these two loons weren't smart enough to attack immediately.

"We take no pleasure in this, human. We are meant to guard, not to kill"

"But we have our orders. We will try to make it quick."

The two lifted their swords, and entered fighting stances. She wasted no time in firing her pistols, but was immediately put on the back foot as the pistols proved to have no immediately noticeable impact on the demon. Meanwhile, the red demon charged first, and proved to be much faster running then his bulk would suggest. It then leaped into the air to cover the last of the distance even faster, and she was only just in time with a backflip to avoid being cut in half. She came out of the backflip with a pistol raised, only to have to roll to the side as the other demon copied the move and also tried to come down on her.

Sensing that the pistols weren't about to cut it, she took a brief second between their attacks to swap one out for a SMG. However, she was having difficulty finding an opening, as while they seemed stupid while talking, they were doing a good job covering each other. When one swung and missed, the other was there to follow up with another strike while the first recovered, and she didn't have the sheer physical ability she would need to take them head on in a swordfight, even if she did have a sword.

Ducking under yet another swing, she attempted to unload the SMG into the blue demon's body. It staggered backward, only for the red demon to sweep back in before she could capitalize, forcing her to pull back further. With the small arms proving worthless, she elected to just drop them on the floor in favor of focusing on dodging. After several more ducks, weaves, and jukes, she took a moment, flipped backward an extra few feet, and yanked her missile launcher off of her back. The plan had been to dodge a couple more times, then try to get some air and use it against them.

However, something happened before she could do that that caused her eyes to widen in panic. Her back thunked against the opposite door that she had come in. They had managed to push her back across the length of the hallway, and she had been forced to focus so much on her dodging that she had failed to notice this. The red one took a vertical swing at her, and she lifted her rocket launcher up out of desperation, holding it in front of her upper body horizontally to block it. And while this did prevent her from taking a fatal wound, the sheer force of the demon's attack caused her body to slam against the door and her arms to give way. The rocket launcher was pushed backward into her throat, and she was now being choked to death by her own weapon.

"You fought well, for a human." The red demon head said. "You will be remembered. Finish it, brother!"

The blue demon slowly circled around the red one, preparing to impale his sword into her gut. She reached her hands down, trying to get to her ammo belt and her stock of grenades, the last trick she had up her sleeve to get out of this situation. But she could already see her the edges of her vision blackening from lack of air, and her fingers were shaking and fumbling over the pockets. Sensing the end, she had one last thought.

_I'm sorry...mother..._

But before the final blow was stuck-

"Wooooo hooooo!" A voice yelled from behind the two demons, causing them to hesitate. The blue one turned to look at what was behind them. Standing on the ceiling behind them was an absurd looking demon, one in the form of a jester. It was currently sticking its tongue out at them and making spitting noises.

"What? Who is that?" The blue demon asked.

"What is it, brother? What do you see?" The other one asked. The jester then turned around and began to slap its own rear end.

"Jester's gonna spank your butt! Spank your butt!"

As the demons were distracted by something she couldn't see, she managed to get the pocket she was trying to get open open. She reached in, pulled the pin on a grenade, and dropped it on the ground. Instantly, it started spewing smoke everywhere. Confused by this sudden turn of events, the red demon withdrew its blade, freeing her throat and allowing her rocket launcher to fall to the floor, narrowly avoiding crushing her feet. She staggered a moment, gasping for breath.

"What is this?"

"Do not interfere in this fight!"

She knew she only had a brief moment of confusion to make her move. She reached down, grabbed her rocket launcher and put it back on her back, then ran and jumped, bouncing off of where the red body's head should have been. As she bounced off of it, she took out another grenade and threw it, hitting the blue demon and rolling between them. Both of them looked at it, leaning their heads in to see it closely.

"It will take more than rocks to defe-"

Then the frag grenade blew up, and both of them staggered backward as the force of the explosion cleared the smoke. This time, their bodies took noticeable damage, and both of them looked at the woman, outraged. In the chaos, the mysterious jester demon had vanished.

"That's not fair!"

"You cheated!"

She responded to this by slamming her missile launcher into the ground so that the back of it was up. Then she thumbed a button on the secondary handle, and a series of micro-missiles shot out of the back, arcing right for them. Enough of them hit the red one to cause him to stagger, but the blue one swung his sword and managed to deflect enough to stop himself from doing the same. Enraged, he ran at her. She waited until he was almost on her, then went into a roll, ducking behind him and placing herself between them.

The red one recovered as this happened, and both of them charged her from both directions, firmly believing there was no way she could avoid them both. Then she pointed her rocket launcher up, and the large bayonet on her rocket launcher shot out, attached to a zip cord as it embedded itself into the ceiling. Another flip of a switch sent her flying up right as they swung, and rather than impacting her, they stuck each other's swords, causing both of them to stagger, off balance. Clutching to her rocket launcher with one arm, she drew her other pistol with the other and aimed. With two precision shots, she hit the head of each sword, causing both of them to fly out of their hands, and the bodies to kneel. She yanked her rocket launcher free and rolled as she hit the ground.

Then she turned, and thumbed the trigger halfway. Her rocket launcher started to shake, and smoke started to come out of the back of it, smoke which was slowly turning into fire as it shook more and more.

"What are you waiting for!" One shouted at its body.

"Hurry up and get up!"

The smoke turned fully to fire, and she unleashed her fully charged missile. It impacted one of the bodies, and a massive explosion engulfed them both, the sheer recoil from the shot pushing her back 5 feet until her feet skidded to a stop. As the smoke cleared, it became clear that she had won, as the bodies were just...gone. The swords, meanwhile, were knocked into the air from the explosion, and both landed on opposite sides of the exit, now powerless to do much of anything. Both stared at each other in shock as she walked back over, picked up her dropped guns, reloaded them, and clutched at her throat for a moment, rolling it and wincing a bit, before she turned around and approached the exit.

"Please, wait!" The blue demon yelled as she neared.

"My name is Agni!" The red one yelled.

"And my name is Rudra!"

"You must take us with you!" Both of them yelled. She paused as she reached a position where she was standing between them, casting her glare between them both.

"You have great skill, this much is clear." Agni said.

"But skill alone will not be enough!"

"If you seek to defeat the seed of Sparda, you will need more then skill!"

"We can give you that which you need!"

She stepped backward, looking at them. "What? Sparda? That's a myth. A child's fairy tail, created by desperate people, seeking to convince themselves there's some grand hero walking the earth, slaying evil wherever he walks."

"He is no myth!"

"He is quite infamous among demons! If you ever stopped to talk to one, you might know this already!"

"Take us, and we-"

Apparently done with the conversation, she drew her pistols and jammed one in each of the sword's open mouths.

"I'll never work with demon scum."

Then she pulled the triggers, and their heads exploded, the swords fading away a moment later. She put the guns away, adjusted the rocket launcher on her back, and then walked through the door.

* * *

Vergil stepped into a large room, with two large statues on either side of the opposite door. He had come quite far, and estimated he was now halfway up the tower. Looking around, he could tell that this room had seen conflict in the past, if the sword gashes and broken ground were any indication. Yet, he saw no sign of any guardians in this room, and both statues had a conspicuous empty spot on top of them where a guardian might have one sat. Slain already by Dante, perhaps? He had no way of knowing for sure. Regardless, perhaps he should just be thankful that he would not lose time in yet another fight against lesser demons. He swiped his hand through his hair, and continued through the door.


	4. Meeting the Brothers

On a balcony, jutting out of the side of the tower, Dante sat, waiting. He heard the sound of a door opening, and looked up. As he saw a female step out, rather then two annoying demons, he started clapping, an action which instantly caused her to look at him and point a gun at his head.

"Not bad." He said. "Not bad at all. I was hoping you'd pull through. Be a shame for a pretty face like that to go to waste."

She hesitated a second, processing this as she gripped her pistol with both hands. "So…..you're the one who sent those two after me?"

"Nothing personal against you. Honestly, I was on the fence, but in the end, I decided that the "Screw you" to scarface and his instructions was something that needed to be done. I'm actually glad you're still alive, I'd much rather deal with a hot chick then two annoying demon swords.

"So you two are working with him." She said as she cocked back the hammer on her pistol. "You and your….. brother." She spat the word out, as if the very concept sickened her.

"Na. Vergil's got too many standards to work with a wackjob like scarface, and I'm more along for the ride then anything else. I'm just here for a fight with Vergil."

She scoffed. "What else would I expect of demons?"

Dante shrugged as he stood up. "Me and my bro, we are who we are. What can I say. But don't let me get in the way. You do you. I don't care if you kill scarface, in fact, I'd wish you luck planting a few bullets in that raisin looking face of his. I just wanted to meet you up close."

He turned around and took a few steps away, then jerked his head to the left as a bullet went flying through the space it had been occupying a mere second ago.

"I didn't say you could leave, demon."

Dante laughed as he turned back around. "Oh, I see how it is. You take out a pair of mid-tier demons, and suddenly you think you can play in the big leagues. Is that it?" She glared at him, unimpressed by his taunt. "Well, I guess I still have a bit of time to kill. So why not. I'll dance with you."

She fired another bullet, and Dante quickly drew his own pistols and shot the bullet out of the air. She fired a few more bullets, each of which were countered by one of his own. She dropped her pistol and ran at him, sliding on her knees to attempt to duck under his guns as she quick drew an SMG and a pistol and fired them at him. Dante responded to this by jumping up into the air and over her, continuing to shoot her bullets even as she attempted to readjust her aim and hit him in midair. Then he spun, and gave her a quick kick to the back, sending her skidding across the ground. As she slid to a stop, she tried to roll onto her back, dropped the pistol, and pulled the small crossbow from her leg, sending a few sudden bolts flying for his head, hoping the change in velocity speeds and type of projectile might throw him off. This, however, was not the case, and they too were show down without much effort.

"This isn't even fair." He said as he put his guns away. "Tell you what, I'll make it even. I won't use any weapons at all."

She gritted her teeth in rage as she grabbed the pistol from the ground and pulled herself to her feet, and ran at him again, closing the distance quickly as she attempted to get in close for a point blank shot to anything she could hit. Yet, she was still failing to score a decisive hit, as he dodged out of the way of every shot or grabbed her arms to throw off her aim.

"WOOOOOOOO!" He yelled as he ducked another shot, and her guns both clicked on an empty mag. Deciding she didn't have the time to reload, she dropped the weapons in their holsters quickly and started attempting melee strikes with her fists and kicks, figuring if she could pin him down on the ground, even he wouldn't be able to dodge a gun directly against his skull.

This plan, however was going as well as the others, only now, rather then dodge, Dante was now lifting his arms in front of him and parrying her every time she swung. After a while, he swept her leg as she raised one for a kick, sending her rolling across the ground and stopping next to her dropped pistol. She grabbed it, got into a crouch, and raised it, planning to catch him off guard. But he was already on the move, and as she turned, he made a simple motion, and extended his arm in what should have been a weak jab. But, unknown to her, he had been storing all of the energy from her parried blows, and unleashed all of it in one hit. This had the result of sending her flying out into the open. Before she fell, however, Dante suddenly slid forward with superhuman speed and caught her leg, causing her to dangle feet first over the edge of the tower.

"Woh, that was close. Don't want to make things too easy for him now, do I? So have you got all that out of your system now, or do I-"

She pointed her pistol, only inches away from his head, and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit him directly in the center of the head, and he recoiled backward, dropping her as he staggered. He grabbed at his head, wiping the blood off of it and looking at it on his finger.

"Ouch. Feisty girl, ain't ya?" He shrugged. "Whatever. Guess all that's left is to go and wait upstairs."

He turned and started making his way back up.

* * *

Vergil, meanwhile, paused on a lower balcony, directly underneath the first one, and raised his head up, as he was fairly sure he could hear the faint sounds of gunfire. Then he saw movement coming down, and reached his hand forward, grabbing the woman as she passed, causing her to jerk to a halt. It took her a split second to register what had happened before she pointed the same gun she had shot Dante with a second ago at Vergil's face.

"Let me go!"

Vergil resisted the heavy temptation to roll his eyes, and moved his arm 3 feet to the left before dropping her to the floor without a word. She pulled herself up, brushing herself off.

"Don't expect me to thank you, demon."

"I assure you, I'm not holding my breath." Vergil said as he turned away from her.

"Wait!"

Vergil sighed again. "I realize you promised to kill me, but I have an appointment."

"He's dead." Vergil turned his head to look back over his shoulder at her, an eyebrow raised. "Your…..brother? I killed him."

"Is that so? It did not appear you won the fight to me."

"I shot him in the forehead a second before falling.

Vergil chuckled, and she stiffened. "What's so funny?"

"I am afraid it takes far more then that to kill a son of Sparda. He's probably already walked it off." She looked naturally unhappy about this.

"Damn it." She sat down on a large piece of rubble. "You're telling me he was just toying with me?"

"Correct. This is no place for a human. If you were wise, you would leave while you still have a chance."

"I can't do that. Not while he's still alive."

Vergil shook his head, and turned away, prepared to leave the girl to her fate. But he paused for a moment, and considered. The man she was here to kill was likely the same one that had drawn him here in the first place. And he still knew nothing about him. He was a minor threat compared to Dante, so far as Vergil was concerned, but there was a decent chance that he might try to interfere at some point. And if that happened, having a picture of the type of man he was dealing with might be helpful.

And so he turned back around, and walked over to the rubble, sitting down next to her with his katana planted in front of him. She gave him a glare, but after the activity of the last half hour, she frankly didn't have the energy to fight him unless her hand was forced.

"Tell me about this man." She looked at Vergil, confused.

"What do you care?"

"He's interfering in my business. Do I need another reason?" She looked down at the ground, debating for a moment whenever or not she should share that information with him.

"He's obsessed with becoming the devil." She eventually said. "He's killed innocent people, butchered them, slaughtered them in horrific rituals. Even his own wife.

"And left a daughter behind?"

She clenched her fist. "He worships evil, the very concept of it. Like it's a religion. He's the most vile kind of creature. And...yes. He's my father. And I won't-can't rest, until he's dead." She paused for a moment, taking a breath."I've been tracking him, for years. Trying to hunt him down. But until tonight, he's always remained a step ahead of me. That's why I have to end this. Tonight."

Vergil slowly nodded, as one thought passed through his mind.  _Then why hasn't he killed you yet?_  If he was smart enough to stay ahead of someone as determined to kill him as this woman, then no doubt he could have found a way to dispose of her at some point, or even simply kill her at the same time as her mother. Why leave a job half finished? The woman spoke up.

"Can I ask?" He turned toward her, silently granting permission to speak. "You, and your….brother..." She hesitated, still not fully ready to buy into the concept of demons having family. "Why are you fighting?"

He mulled over what to say for a moment. "That is a long story, one I do not have the time nor inclination to get into the details of. Suffice it to say, woman, you are not the only one who has suffered tragedy in this world. And not everyone responds to it in the same way. Some grow bitter and angry. Others blame themselves, and wonder if things might have been different, had they been stronger. But some, some simply stop caring. Some decide that they can no longer be hurt if they discard their feelings, and ignore any suffering as an inevitability."

She looked down at the ground, clearly unsure of what to say. Vergil rose, and looked down at her. "Tell me. Do you know what this tower is?" She looked up at him, confused. "This tower, it is known as the Temen-ni-gru. It is a gate between the human world, and the demon world." She gasped, as suddenly his objective became clear to her. "Yes. I don't doubt his intentions. One such as him would only have one reason to be here. Unfortunately, the texts I read did not have the exact details of what ritual would be required to unlock the seal, but you can be sure he would have found out before progressing to this point."

"Damn it." She said, fist only clenching harder. "Then I have to find him. Fast."

"In the basement lies the control room. It is there he would need to go to break the seal on this place. Even if he is not there now, his path will take him there. If you can make it there, you could turn it into an ambush point." He started to walk away.

"Wait! Why help me? What's in it for you?"

"Me? Little. But clearly, you are not leaving. If I can ensure you deal with the distraction while I handle my personal business, all the better."

"And how do I know this isn't just some trick? How do I know you're not lying to me?"

"You don't. What you do is up to you. As are the consequences of your actions "

Vergil wasted no more time, and rounded the corner, vanishing from view. She hestated, unsure of what to do next, and whenever or not she should take the demon's words at face value. Then, she turned, and started walking back down.


	5. Reunion

She was walking down a set of stairs. In front of her was some kind of control panel looking thing, with 3 gems inserted into it, and above that, some kind of strange looking demonic device who's function she was unsure of, although the shape vaguely reminded her of a gun. She paused, looking at it closer. Then, she heard a voice.

"Well, well."

Her eyes widened. It was a voice she would have known anywhere, a voice that had haunted her, both in her dreams and when she was awake, for the longest time. She spun around, lifting the gun that she had never put away up to point it at Arkham, who had somehow appeared behind her, in front of the door she had entered from, with no sound.

"You've grown stronger."

"Go to hell." She said on reflex, unwilling to accept any form of complements from the man standing in front of her.

"You point a gun at me?" He asked, putting on a clearly fake expression of sadness. "Your own kin? Your dear Papa?"

Her eyes narrowed in rage. "The only family I ever had was my mother." She could feel her anger building even as Arkham's eyes shifted from fake sadness to genuine annoyance. Her hand started to shake, and she snapped.

"AND SHE'S DEAD!" She fired her handgun, unleashing 4 shots before she realized that he had somehow vanished, the bullets connecting with nothing. Her mouth dropped open in shock.

"You break my heart!" His voice echoed through the chamber in mock outrage. She spun back around, drawing one of her SMGs in her other hand as she panned around the room, scanning for him. "After all, it was I who gave you your name! My darling daughter!"

She couldn't see any sign of him, but she could hear his voice growing fainter. Clearly, he was running. She pointed her guns in the direction the voice seemed to be retreating in, a door to the left of the door she had entered from. She ran after him, slamming her shoulder into the door and rushing through it, just as he wanted.

* * *

The rain started as he reached the foot of the stairs.

He was now mere steps away from his objective. The top of the tower. His brother had always been the theatrical sort, and no doubt he had deliberately picked this location for their duel. Not that he disagreed with the sentiment, if he was being honest. A bolt of lightning fell, and if Vergil hadn't been sure that Dante did not have control over the weather, he would have naturally assumed that too, was caused by him.

He rolled his neck, readying himself. He had been preparing for this for longer then he cared to admit, and he could feel the anticipation building. He had reasons, serious reasons for being here, but even he had to admit, deep down, that he enjoyed these bouts between his brother and him on some primal level. Perhaps it was the demonic blood inside of him that made him feel that?

But speculation could wait. Slowly, he placed one foot in front of the other, and ascended the tower steps as the rain started to fall faster. As he reached the top, he saw Dante lounging in a beach chair, facing away from him. Vergil didn't even pretend to be surprised to see Dante taking this with no seriousness. Still, he must have heard Vergil's footsteps, as he spoke without looking backward at him.

"Took you long enough. Welcome to the party. What'd you bring with you for a refreshment? This pizza's cold, and now soggy. I'm hoping it's something good." Vergil stood motionless, not rising to Dante's foolishness, and he shrugged, getting up. "Not feeling it today, Bro? Alright, fine then. We'll skip the foreplay."

He gave a swift kick to the beach chair, sending it flying off of the tower and down to the ground below, and turned toward Vergil, who was staring at him with a stoic expression.

"Dante. You've gone too far this time."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" He asked, shrugging. "This wasn't my idea. Come on, you really think I'd go through this much effort? I wanted to see you again, Bro, but not that much."

"You could have stopped him. You didn't have to follow along like his lacky. I thought even  _you_  had more self-respect then that."

"He'll get what's coming to him, don't you wet your pants about that, Vergil."

"You still allowed the tower to rise. How many humans do you think that act alone killed?"

Dante shrugged. "Don't know. But even if I had shot him, someone else would have done it eventually. You think he's the only crackpot running around this planet?" Vergil continued to glare at him, unimpressed by this argument, and Dante shook his head. "You don't get it. You don't hang around the places I do. You're all "High Class" and shit." He took a moment to make mocking air quotes as he said this.

"Me, I hang around the places that are above you. And I've seen some shit. People getting the shit kicked out of them, shanked, stabbed, even killing each other over a few bucks. Sure, most of them don't go walking around ranting about how much they want to jerk off to evil like scarface does. But if I went down there, and told anyone in that city that they could gain the power to do whatever the hell they wanted, and all they have to do is open a hellgate, I'd wager at least half of them would have jumped on it."

"And what of the other half?"

"What about em? You can't protect everyone. And frankly, they're all content to kill each other anyway, demons or not. Why bother?"

"Because we are superior to the humans. We have power. And with power, comes responsibility. What good is power if you allow it to waste away? What good is it, if you don't use it? Or worse, if you use it to take advantage of those who lack it?"

Dante spat at his own feet. "God. I always did hate you, Vergil. I didn't sign up for that. But you always did want to be just like Father." He threw up his hands. "Fine. Waste your time. But leave me out of it. Scarface, he ain't here. You want to go find him and stop him, and protect all the humans, then go. I won't stop you. But you won't ever see me again. I'll hide, change my name, whatever I have to do to make sure you never find me. "

Vergil stood silent for a long moment, and another blast of thunder sounded over the city. Then he spoke.

"I didn't come here for the humans. I didn't come for him. I came for  _you_." Dante's eyebrows went up. "I'm not leaving here without you."

"Then I guess you're not leaving here at all." Dante said as he shook his head, and drew his pistols, holding them at reversed 90-degree angles and crossing his arms. "You haven't won a single one of our fights since that day. You think that's about to change?"

"I've been preparing." Vergil said as he unsheathed his katana an inch.

"Alright then. Let's see what you got!"

* * *

She found herself in a large room, with giant statues to each side of her that abruptly halted before they reached the ceiling, the same room that Vergil had walked through earlier and that Agni and Rudra had once resided in. Her guns were up and at the ready before she was even fully through the door, but she didn't go charging in. That was a good way to walk into a trap. Besides which, it became apparent a moment later that he hadn't gotten that far away yet.

"Have I ever told you how proud of you I am?"

She felt a shudder go up her back at his words. "Why don't you come down here and tell me to my face?"

"You were such a sweet child once, Mary-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

"-pure and innocent. And then you grew up, much quicker than most children."

"You didn't leave me a choice, you  _bastard!"_

"I've been watching you, ever since that day. I watched, as you mourned, grieved, as you allowed yourself to be consumed by Wrath. I watched as you abandoned your life-"

"A life you left in ruins!"

"-as you dedicated yourself to a single-minded obsession, a goal that has controlled your life ever since. To kill me. And I admit, I feel nothing but pride."

She had to swallow; afraid she was going to get physically sickened by this tirade. By this point, she had reached the other end of the room, and slammed her way through the next door, finding herself outside, on another balcony style area, although this one seemed to run across some of the tower, and ended at what seemed to be some kind of cave carved into the side.

"What more can I feel? To see my own flesh and blood turned from a pure child, to a wrathful woman."

She started creeping toward the edge, as she started to pin down where his voice was coming from.

"And so, all I wish to say is...thank you, Mary."

She took a step forward, looking over the balcony, and pointed her guns down. Sure enough, she could see him, somehow standing on the side of the tower. Without any hesitation, she unloaded her guns at him, only for him to jump off the side of the tower and fall toward the ground, quickly leaving the range of any of her firearms and, soon, her sight range. She staggered backward, unloading the empty magazine from her pistol, only to find her hands shaking harder than when she was being choked as she tried to reach for a new one. She took a moment, placed the upper tip of the barrel of the pistol against her forehead, closed her eyes, and took several deep breaths.

_He's trying to get into my head. He's trying to make me doubt myself. Trying to make me hesitate. And I'm letting him! He's a sick, rotten, vile man. His words mean nothing. Remember what he did. What he will do if I fail. He has to die. I know that. Nothing else matters. Nothing._

She opened her eyes, and having calmed herself down, reloaded her guns, and turned toward the cave, going down the large elevator inside of it. Back out on the balcony, a long nose poked its way out from under the balcony, bouncing as it comically sprung off of the edge of the tower it had been squeezed against. The same jester figure that had intervened in her fight before lifted its head over the balcony, laughing.

"That's right! Scurry away, go, chase the bad man!"

He looked upward, toward the top of the tower.

"Gotta hurry, otherwise I'm going to miss my chance to get that fancy amulet!"

He then took off, running up the side of the tower in an extremely comical manner.

* * *

Dante made the first move of the fight, rapidly firing his guns at Vergil. Vergil responded to this by vanishing, teleporting out of the way of the bullets and forward. He reappeared to Dante's left-hand side, and attempted to make two quick swings with his sword's hardened sheath to stun Dante. However, Dante was quick to dodge out of the way, and he reached for his own sword, swinging it from the ground upward in a motion designed to launch Vergil into the air. Vergil turned quickly, blocking it at the very last second, but the sheer force of the blow still sent him into the air.

Dante leaped into the air, chasing him. He drew his sword again, delivering a 4-hit air combo, one which Vergil attempted to block. However, Dante's strength level was much higher than even Vergil could manage to muster, and on the third hit, his guard was shattered, leaving him open for the forth hit that send him rolling backward. Dante landed, shaking his head.

"Come on, bro. I thought you were serious about this?"

Even as Dante delivered his taunt, Vergil took a step backward, gripping his sheathed sword, and then swiftly unsheathing it an inch before resheathing it. A sphere of energy appeared around the taunting Dante, and he was not quick enough to realize what was happening before a number of sword slashes manifested within the sphere, delivering a hit to Dante, who rolled backward. Vergil took this chance to press the attack, rapidly teleporting forward a few times to close the distance as the ice nunchucks he received earlier, Cerberus, appeared in his hand.

Before Dante could ready himself, Vergil jumped off the ground and started to rapidly spin in the air, swinging Cerberus in the process and effectively turning himself into a fast moving propeller. Dante took several hits to his head before allowing the impact of the blows to knock him backward, summersaulting as he flew backward so he landed on his feet.

"Got a few new tricks, I see. Not bad. But it's going to take more than that to beat me."

Cerberus vanished as Vergil once again gripped his katana. Suddenly, Dante started sliding forward, blade pointed forward and fully extended toward Vergil in a move that would no doubt impale anyone hit. Vergil, at the same time, slid forward himself, quick drawing his blade as he got into range. The two swords clashed, and Vergil, being at the disadvantage in terms of strength, found his sword arm being driven backward as he only succeeded in stopping Dante's momentum.

Dante lifted his sword to deliver a follow up, only for Vergil to use his weapons sheath to strike him in the chest, driving him backward. As he landed in a crouch, he drew a pistol, and fired at Vergil several times. Vergil once again teleported forward, and swung with his sword at Dante's chest, which Dante met with his own.

The two started rapidly trading blows, each being met with the other man's sword, and started moving fast enough that they were creating a visible bubble in the middle of the rainstorm, the rain being unable to get past the swinging swords. Vergil's slicked back hair, already soaked at this point, came loose, and his hair fell down, becoming a mirror of Dante's own hair, and if it wasn't for the weapons and coats, one might have difficulty telling which one was who, even if they were right next to the two brothers.

Eventually, the swords caught on each other, and the two brothers found themselves in a sword clash, the bubble they had created vanishing. Both of them gave each other looks during this pause, and regardless of their mutual animosity, both of them at that moment understood exactly what the other was thinking, and agreed that this was pretty fun.

But there could only be one winner, and Dante forced Vergil's blade out of his hand, causing it to go flying into the air. Left exposed, Dante wasted no time in impaling Vergil through the chest. Vergil's eyes widened.

"Should have left when I gave you the chance, Vergil." Dante said, an unusually sad look in his eyes. "I didn't want it to end like this. But you didn't leave me a choice."

Then he yanked the sword back out of Vergil's chest, and a massive amount of blood spurted out of him as he fell to the ground, defeated. Blood started to mix with water as Dante took a final look at Vergil, before turning and starting to walk away. Behind him, Arkham, who had appeared as Vergil was finished off, was ignored as Dante walked past him without so much as a glance, not even noticing he was there. This suited Arkham fine, and he approached Vergil's body. He noticed Vergil's fingers were still twitching, and casually picked up Vergil's sword, before impaling Vergil with it.

Vergil stopped moving, and Arkham leaned down to examine Vergil's neck. Finding what he was looking for, he ripped off a pendant that was almost identical to Dante's, save for the color of the chain and metal the red stone rested in. He turned around, and started walking toward the roof's edge.

Then, behind him, a massive amount of water suddenly shot up as Vergil's blade suddenly shot into the air without warning. A hand suddenly reached through it, grabbed the sword, and slashed the air in front of him, parting the water and sending a visible slash through the air, aimed at Dante's back. Dante, caught off guard, hardly had a chance to even raise his sword to block it before the impact, and slid across the roof to its edge.

"Shit….it's about time, Vergil. Now I can stop playing around with you…."

Vergil was now standing, breathing heavily, clutching his sword, and had a glowing white aura around him as he staggered forward slowly, in a manner not unlike a zombie. The vacant look in his eyes signaled that he was not conscious of his actions, and was running on pure instincts. Next to him, 8 large, blue spectral swords appeared, 4 on each side, and all of them pointed at Dante.

"Uh oh." Dante quickly drew his pistols and tried to start firing as they all hurtled toward him with nothing more then split second intervals, and while he managed to get the first few, several of them impacted with him, and pushed him back far enough to send him flying off the tower.

Vergil turned toward Arkham, who said nothing. He just took a few steps backward, and leaped off of the tower himself. Vergil paused in the middle of the tower. Then he felt a massive surge of pain, and looked to the sky, screaming. Then his body transformed in a surge of blue energy. His hair turned to a horn like material shaped in a triangle, with the parts on the side of his head jutting up, leaving a long divide in the center where his hair would usually be slicked back. His face turned black and inhuman looking, with glowing eyes and teeth that resembled a sharks more then a human. His clothing changed in look, now having a set of scales not unlike that of a dragon's on it. His fingers and toes changed to talons, each now having a sharp claw on the end. He had awakened to his true demonic form.

He only maintained this form for a moment before reverting back to his human self, and falling facefirst to the ground, falling unconscious.


	6. Memories

_Vergil sat in front of a roaring fireplace, on the lap of his mother. She had called him into the room, and said she had something important to discuss with him. She started by handing him a necklace, with a red stone in it. Vergil looked at her._

" _What's this?"_

" _It's an amulet. A very special one. It's going to be your job to keep it safe. But this is only half of the amulet. Your brother has the other half of it. And through it, you two will always be connected."_

" _Dante?" Vergil scoffed, crossing his arms. "He'll probably lose it."_

" _I think you should have more faith in your brother."_

" _Why should I? He's lazy, he makes everything around him dirty, he's always goofing off..."_

" _I don't think that's a bad thing. I love your father, and you remind me very much of him. But if everyone was as serious as him and you, the world would be a very boring place."_

" _He's immature." Vergil said, clearly grumpy and not convinced. His mother gave him a moment to sulk, then put her hand on his shoulder._

" _You still love him, don't you?"_

" _Well...I guess..." Vergil said, clearly begrudgingly._

" _You're the older brother. That means it's your job to keep him safe."_

_Vergil looked up at her, confused. "But...what about you? And father?"_

" _Of course, we will too, but there may come a day when we're no longer around to do that. When that day comes, that task will fall to you."_

_He looked at his mother, annoyed. "I'm not going to be his babysitter!"_

_She chuckled. "That's not what I'm saying. I'm just asking you to be there for him. Sometimes, all someone needs is to know that someone's at their side, someone they can trust not to abandon them."_

" _But...what if demons come? Wouldn't I have to do more? Wouldn't I have to fight?"_

_A sad look overtook her face. "You may, yes. But don't worry. You and your brother, you're special. You're Sons of Sparda. You already have the strength you need, even if you don't know it yet."_

" _But what if I need more? Father has a lot of enemies, right? And a lot of them are strong. What if I'm not strong enough to face them? What if I need more power, what if-"_

_She put a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "Can I tell you a secret, Vergil? Once you can never repeat to anyone?" He nodded. "Your father struggled with those same temptations. He wasn't always as strong as he is now. To protect what he cared about, he had to seek out power. And he too, had to struggle against his inner urges. The urge to seek out power for no other reason than to gain more, the urge to misuse it. And he was a full blooded demon, so he had to resist urges that were coming from his very being."_

" _Then...how did he resist it?"_

" _He never told me directly, but...if I had to guess, I would say that he tempered his urges by focusing on why he wanted it. He kept reminding himself of why he wanted the power, of who he wanted to protect. For you, that is your brother. And in time, you may find other things you wish to protect."_

" _Power, in itself, is not evil. It's only when you lose sight of yourself that power corrupts you. And what point is there to power, if all you do is scare away those who you wish to protect? So, what I would say to you, Vergil, if you ever find yourself in doubt, is this..."_

_She leaned in so that she was looking directly at him. "Remember who you are. Don't let your emotions control you..."_

* * *

Down on the ground, Dante was picking himself up after the long fall off of the tower. As he did so, he could sense someone behind him, and took a wild guess. Not that it was hard, there was a grand total of 3 other people in the tower, one would have already been shooting, and one would have continued to lecture him, so that left one person.

"Where you been, Scarface?"

"Making preparations." Arkham said as he stepped forward.

"Uh huh. Sounds real interesting." He said as he looked back up at the top of the tower.

"You could go back up there. But I have another idea. Something you may be interested in."

"Pass."

"It involves your father." This earned Arkham a sudden look. "Or rather, his legacy. I've done my research. And I know for a fact, you hate your heritage. You hate that Sparda's name hangs over you."

"Maybe. What's your point?"

"I have told you what this tower is. What I have not told you is what lies on the other side. His power. Sparda's power. Power he sealed away, long ago, when he split the two worlds. All that would have to be done to get to it, is to open the gate, and walk through."

"Problem is, I don't give a shit about his power. I don't want it."

"I am not saying you have to take it up yourself. No, quite the opposite. I require your help, to open the gate. And in return, I will offer you the chance to reach his power...and destroy it."

Dante crossed his arms, looking up. "Think about it" Arkham said, stepping forward another step. "What greater insult would there be to your father's legacy, then to undo everything he has done, and then destroy the power that made it possible in the first place?"

He mulled this over. "How much of a pain is it going to be?"

"The effort on your part will be minimal. All you need do is follow me to the basement."

He took one last moment to glance back up. "He will be sure to follow." Arkham said. "Most likely, you will get your rematch, one way or another."

"Alright then." He waved in front of him. "Lead on."

* * *

Slowly, Vergil came to, the rain having already stopped, and slowly picked himself up off the ground. Instantly, he could tell something had...changed. He felt stronger. Stronger than he ever had before. He stepped forward, grabbing his sword off the ground, and placed it into his sheath.

Slowly, memories of the last few moments of the fight returned to him, and he understood. He walked over to a statue, and applied a hard punch to it. The thing cracked, and then shattered into pieces, a feat he was rather sure he could not do before.

_So...I've awakened to my demonic half, and had to almost die to do it. Is this why Dante's been stronger, since that day?_

Naturally, information about half demons like he and his brother in the texts Vergil had poured over was minimal to non-existent. And Dante was naturally not forthcoming with whatever had happened that day. He closed his eyes, considering this.

_Now I have the power to face him as an equal. Next time will be different. But...this power. I've never felt this powerful, not in all of my life. And..._

He dug deep, and found a new source of demonic power deep within that had not been there before.

_I can call on that form. And my power will likely only grow when I do. But I have to be careful. Such a rapid growth of power...if I rely too much on it, it will become a crutch, at best, and an obsession at worst._

In that moment, he suddenly realized something else. A feeling on his neck that had become almost second nature, one that was not there now. He reached into his coat, and noticed his amulet was missing.

_Dante must have taken it. Why, I don't know. But another reason to go after him._

He stepped to the edge of the tower, looking down.

_He would have returned by now, had he been coming back. That must mean he is going down. To the control room._

He considered the best method to get down rapidly for a moment. Then he decided on the quickest method, and swan dived off of the tower.


	7. Truce

_So I have made the decision to skip a particular giant flying whale level. While it's a nice throwback to the DMC1 hell area, frankly, the bosses that don't really have a personality and don't talk contribute little to nothing to this type of thing. All you'd get is literally the exact same boss fight from the game in text form with maybe a quip or two from Vergil, and I won't lie, fight scenes are not my strongest point, so I figure it's better to focus on other things._

* * *

Mary was really starting to get annoyed. Not at the demons, or her father, her feelings on that were set in stone. But now she was adding the tower itself to her list of enemies. It was a maze, and she swore that it she could have walked down the side of the tower with her zip line stuck to the wall like a rock wall and gotten down just as fast, and probably with much less ammo expended. It had taken her what felt like an hour to get back down to the ground, and then another 10 minutes to circle around the outside and find the entrance to the basement.

Slowly, she approached the door, gun raised. Then, suddenly, something slammed into the ground in front of her, shattering the concrete under him and kicking up a large amount of dust. After a moment, it cleared, and she saw Vergil, none the worse for the fall, dusting himself off.

_What the hell? That had to be a miles long drop from the top of the tower. How the hell did he survive that with no injuries? What the hell do you have to do to these two to kill them? Can they even be killed?_

He started walking forward, and she cocked back the hammer on her pistol, a noise which caused him to stop.

"Eager to waste more ammo, are we?" He asked. "Or did no one ever teach you that most people don't consider a gun being pointed at them to be a proper greeting?"

"What are you doing here?" She asked, ignoring his insult. "You were going to meet your brother. If you're done, you should be leaving."

"The fight ended inconclusively. I believe my brother is now also going to the control room. I intend to meet him there."

"Is that right?" She asked, still fingering the trigger. "What about my father? He's  _mine_ to kill, not yours."

"I have no interest in getting in the middle of your affairs, woman. If he gets in my way, I will shatter his legs and leave him for you to finish off." She didn't reply to this, and several awkward seconds passed before he spoke again, still looking away from her. "You don't trust me." It was not said as a question, but a statement of fact.

"Would you?"

Vergil looked up, considering the question. "I suppose I cannot fault you." He came to a decision. "Then come with me."

"What?" The request caught her completely off guard, and she took a step backwards.

"You are familiar with the adage "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer"?"

"I'm not allying with demon scum!"

"Hardly. Consider it a momentary truce. Once our business is done, you may do as you wish. But I tire of having to stop to have a gun pointed at me every 15 minutes, and I have no more time to waste. Lower the weapon and follow, or fire. Decide now.

There was another moment of silence, as she debated whenever or not to go along with this. Then she lowered the gun.

"Fine. But I'll be watching you  _very_  closely. No funny business, demon."

"You are speaking with the wrong twin if you expect  _that_." He started walking forward.

"Twin? Those two are  _twins_?" She asked herself in mild disbelief, before picking up the pace and catching up with him.

* * *

"Let me make something clear " Vergil said as they crossed a large bridge suspended over a black pit.

"Oh, this should be good."

"I am not here to babysit you"

" _God,_ are you seriously-"

"If you cannot keep up with me, you will be left behind."

"I don't need to be  _coddled,_ you  _jackass!_ " She yelled, resisting the great urge to punch him in the back of the head.

"If you allow yourself to get in over your head, do not expect me to save you"

"I think I'd die of humiliation if I was saved by a demon." She scoffed. They fell silent as they crossed the bridge and reached the next door.

"Do you have a name, woman?"

"No."

Vergil paused in front of the door, turning around to look at her with a raised eyebrow.

"Ah. Then I was correct, and you  _are_  a savage raised with the manners of an animal."

"Shut up."

"Then tell me your name." She looked down at the ground. "Unless you wish to be called "Woman" for the rest of your life? I can arrange for that, it means nothing to me."

Despite herself, she was starting to feel really stupid under Vergil's glare, and she could feel her cheeks starting to turn red, which only made the feeling worse.

"My father picked my name….." She muttered. Vergil shook his head.

"Foolishness."

"It's not-"

"If you wish to act the child, you will be treated like one." He said as he turned and continued through the door to the next room.

"I should have just shot you."

"Yet another childish statement." She crossed her arms, content to glare at him as they walked.

"Consider this, woman." She rolled her eyes as she prepared for the lecture, already detecting the condescension in his voice. "One way or another, your fight ends tonight. You will die, or kill him. Correct?" Blinking, she nodded. "If you die, it will not matter, but if you live through tonight, you will need to consider what comes next."

"What comes next?"

"This hunt of yours, to kill him. It has been your life, correct?" She looked away, as good as an affirmation in Vergil's eyes. "If you succeed, you will need to find a new purpose in life. And when you do, you will need a  _name_."

She tried to look annoyed at him, but she was having difficulty just writing off what he said, demon or not.

"…..I'll think about it." All she got in return from Vergil was an annoyed grunt.

* * *

"Well, if this door doesn't scream "Evil ass control room", nothing does."

Dante and Arkham stood in front of a huge door that was about 2 stories tall. A complex pattern of interlocking metal bars sealed it from opening. Arkham stood in front of it, making some hand motions which Dante liked to think was a pentagram, but probably wasn't.

"So, what the hell do we have to do in here?"

"The ritual is a simple one. There are two keys that we need. First, a set of Sparda's blood. And a pendant."

Dante's eyebrow went up as Arkham pulled out half of a pendant from his pocket. "You have half, and you brother had the other half."

"So that's why you wanted him…." Dante muttered.

"Once it is done, the gate will be unsealed, and the Temen-ni-gru will finally regain its full functionality."

The metal bars holding the door shut started to retract, and Arkham stepped back.

"And the one who will lift the incantation is you. His own son. It must be fate."

Arkham stepped to the side, motioning for Dante to go first. He took a few steps forward. Then he pulled out a pistol, shot him in the gut, and then, as he fell to his knees, took his sword and shoved it into his back.

"You know, it's funny. I wasn't gonna kill you. Not now, anyway. Figured it'd be funnier to wait until the moment you thought you had everything, then kill you in that moment. That's how it happens in the movies." He twisted the sword, getting a scream out of Arkham. "But you had to go and do something that actually annoyed me."

He reached down, picking the pendant off of the floor where it had been dropped. He held it in front of Arkham.

"This? This don't belong to you. I don't like Vergil, but he's at least family. And for some slimy little human like you, to put your hands on this? That's an insult."

He yanked the sword out of Arkham.

"I hope you choke on your blood, shitface."

He turned and walked into the control room as Arkham's eyes closed.

* * *

Mary had reached a simple conclusion. Any attempt to actually fight Vergil would be suicide. She had shot her fair share of demons, but he was clearly on another level. Swords being summoned out of thin air, a katana that seemed able to cut any demon in half in a single swing, a pair of insane looking nunchucks that had appeared out of thin air and vanished just as quick, spheres that cut anything inside to ribbons….

In fact, she was beginning to suspect that Vergil was purposely showing off. These sure as hell weren't the toughest demons she'd seen, he didn't need to pull out all of his toys to kill them, his katana of one slash kills probably would have sufficed. Not that she'd voice that thought, and give him the satisfaction.

Hell, she probably could have just stood there and let him kill them all. He sure as hell didn't  _need_  her help, and they didn't even seem to be giving her a second glance with Vergil nearby. But she still expended some ammo and shot some demons, if only to make a point that she wasn't some damsel that needed to be rescued. He'd probably consider it another "Childish" gesture, but screw him, he was a demon, what the hell did he know?

Now they stood in front of a fancy red door that was highly out of place in the tower. Vergil gave it a curious glance.

"Remain out here."

" _Excuse_ me?"

"There is a powerful presence in the next room. I will deal with it, and come back for you when it is dead."

He walked into the room with no further discussion. Inside, he found a seedy looking room that seemed to be made to emulate some form of nightclub or concert hall, with a large stage at the opposite end of the room. In the center of the room, a red headed female demon appeared. She had no clothing on and only conveniently placed hair blocking her upper chest, and around her waist, her body cut off into a small black tower of some sort which seemed to function as her legs. She slid over to Vergil.

"Hello, sugar" She said reaching for Vergil's face. He slapped the hand away with his sheathed katana. "Ohhhh. Playing hard to get, are we?" She looked over at the door. "Or, you're already taken? I can accommodate your pet human too, there's room in the bed for a threesome."

Vergil closed his eyes in pure annoyance, already knowing what was behind him, and attempting to silently will it away.

"What did I  _just_  say, woman?"

Mary, meanwhile, was busy sputtering at what she was seeing. Then she suddenly realized what the demon had called her, and her angry glare returned. "Who the hell are you calling a pet human!?"

"Oh, my my, do I sense tension?" She slid up to Mary, sizing her up. "Not every demon has a stick up their rear ends, dear. Some of us know how to have fun. And my, are  _you_  in need of some fun." She slid behind her, placing her hands on her shoulders and leaning in close to her ear. "Hmmmmmm…..so stiff. You're  _desperately_ in need of my help, dear. When I'm done with you, you'll never want to leave."

The feeling of the demon's hands on her shoulders drove her to action, and she reached for her SMG, twisting it behind her and firing a burst at the demon. Said demon vanished, turning into a swarm of bats, and reappeared in front of the two.

"Hmmmmm…..looks like I'll need to teach you some discipline first."

_Oh god, ewwwww, it touched me._ Mary thought, her internal tone a far cry from her angry glare.  _I'm going to have to burn this shirt when I'm done, who knows where those hands have been…._

Vergil turned back to face the demon. Without a word, he unsheathed his blade an inch.

"Pain can be pleasurable too. Let me show you how…"

She held her hand in front of her, blew out a kiss, and bats flew out of her body. Vergil responded by summoning floating swords and firing them at the first couple, but they were too slow to hit them all, and so he teleported out of the way and forward, toward the demon, who summoned more bats to sit in front of her as a shield as he swung his sword, the bats taking the brunt of the blows.

The remaining bats meanwhile, losing track of Vergil, floated toward Mary, who started shooting at them, slowly killing them while retreating. She might be stubborn as all hell, but she wasn't stupid, and realized that she was better served letting Vergil do his thing for the most part, so she dove behind a pillar, trying to stay out of sight and remain unnoticed until she saw an opening.

The demon vanished once again, turning into bats as she flew over to the other side of the room. She reformed, the bat shield reappearing as Vergil rapidly teleported over to her. She extended her hands and started spinning around as a razor sharp black material which seemed to be made out of the same thing as her legs and the bats appeared, attempting to cut at the approaching Vergil. Vergil simply teleported directly up into the air, above it, and reached for his katana.

The bats quickly flew up and were only just in time to intercept him as he spun in midair and delivered a spinning move with his blade, one with enough force to propel him upward even higher then he already was. As gravity started to push him down, the demon slowed her spinning, and Vergil took this opportunity to deliver a brutal falling slash from the air against her, one which shattered the vast majority of her bats. She screamed, and withdrew once again by turning into bats.

"Cowardly harlot." Vergil muttered as he turned around again.

"Ohhhhh, he's got a mouth on him." She said as she reappeared on the stage. "A shame you won't use that mouth for what it's best for." Behind her, rows of lightning appeared, some angled horizontally, some vertically, but all appeared to be generated by a pair of bats on each side of each bolt of lightning, and Vergil realized at once that this meant she would have less to use for her own defense. "But let's see how you handle this."

She sent them flying at him in intervals which were intended to prevent him from getting much distance toward her, as he would have to dodge each bolt in turn. As they passed him the bats flew backward, reformed another bolt, and continued the assault. While Vergil was managing to keep from getting hit, it was clear to him that something had to be done to break this stalemate. He took a second to focus inward.

Then, he exploded in a blast of blue energy, and he transformed into his demon form. Now able to move much faster than he was before, he swiftly sprinted past the lightning. The demon was thrown off by this, and attempted to recall her bats, but was not quick enough.

With the first two swings of his sheathed sword, he knocked away what few bats she had left. Then he drew his sword, and as he did so, a series of 6 summoned swords appeared in a circle around him, moving in a clockwise motion and cutting into the demon along with him, causing additional damage. He started by delivering two very swift slashes, one downward and another upward, causing the demon to stagger and slump down to the ground. The next two strikes repeated this motion, but slower, and dark energy started to form around his blade. Then he raised his blade up above his head, the energy reaching its maximum.

"Die."

He delivered the blow, and she screamed as she vanished again. She reappeared father away, but clearly seriously injured, as one of her arms was clutching her chest. Vergil, having expended his energy, returned to his normal human form, swords still circling around him.

"Naughty boy. I'll teach you respect..."

She lifted her hand, and at least twice the amount of lightning appeared as the last time. It would seem she had decided to use every last one of her bats in a last ditch effort to destroy Vergil, leaving herself with none. Vergil was not particularly concerned, as he believed he had identified a way around this. The lightning was formed by two bats each, and so if he used his summoned swords to destroy the bats, he could negate enough of them to reach her and deliver the killing blow. The lightning started to approach, and he prepared himself.

Then, the demon suddenly recoiled as an explosion struck her in the back, a missile fired by Mary. With no warning, the demon vanished, and reappeared a mere foot in front of Mary. Suddenly, the pillar she had been taking cover behind became a gigantic liability, as with the demon in front and the pillar behind, she had no room to move. She tried to swing her missile launcher's bayonet at the demon, only for her to causally backhand the rocket launcher and knock it out of her hands.

The demon laughed, seemingly confident she had a moment to deal with the human while Vergil was stuck dodging lightning, and wrapped her hands around Mary, pinning her to the pillar. She opened her mouth, and a purple gas started to flow out of it. Even from several feet away, she could feel herself getting nauseous just from the smell, and her eyes went wide as she realized what was likely to happen if this crap got inside of her.

Then, a katana was suddenly shoved through the demons chest, and she gave a final scream as her arms let go of Mary, who staggered backward immediately. Vergil yanked it back out of her, and spun his blade for a moment, the demon remaining upright as he slowly sheathed his sword. The second it clicked back into the sheath, the demon slumped over, clearly defeated.

Then the demon vanished, and Vergil extended his hand. In it appeared, of all things, a violin, with the bottom of it pointed in a very prominent sickle shape. In his other hand appeared a bow to string it with. He lifted the bow to the violin, and started to play a piece from Beethoven. Lighting struck various times as he did this, and once he got into the piece, he took a few moments to extend the violin longer, and swung it a few times like a scythe. Satisfied with his new weapon, he allowed it to vanish like Cerberus before it.

Then he looked around for the foolish woman, and only then noticed the retching noises coming from a corner of the room, noises which signaled that she was busy throwing up. He sighed, and walked away, entering the next door. He returned a minute later, holding an orb in his hand. He walked up behind Mary, who seemed to have finished throwing up.

"I trust, next time, you will follow instructions?"

She got up slowly, turning toward Vergil, and still looking slightly sick, a side effect of which meant she was not visibly angry, but otherwise unharmed. "Fine. You win. Happy, demon?"

"Ecstatic." He said in a deadpan tone of voice. "And I see you are still alive." She cocked her head at him, confused by this obvious statement. "Did you not say you would "Die of humiliation" if you were saved by a demon?"

This reignited her anger, and she glared at the demon. "You didn't  _save_ me, demon, I...distracted her. So you could finish her off."

"Is that what you call it? I would not advise repeating the tactic." He turned around to face the door as Mary looked down at the ground.

"Thanks." She muttered.

"I'm afraid I didn't hear you." Vergil said, smirking. "Could you repeat that?"

She looked up, perhaps sensing the smugness coming off of Vergil, and crossed her arms. "I said go to hell, demon!" She walked past him, purposely bumping him hard in the shoulder as she walked over to retrieve her rocket launcher. He shook his head, and turned to leave.


	8. Revenge

Vergil and Mary found themselves inside of an elaborate, white hallway, with glass stained windows high above them, and a large, plain white door on the other end. Both of them came to an immediate stop as they entered, and Mary gasped. However, this was not because of the fact that this hallway very much did not fit in with the rest of the tower that they had seen so far, but because of the man laying on the ground in front of them. Arkham, who was laying in front of a short line of blood that seemed to suggest he had crawled about 10 feet before coming to a halt at his current position.

"No." Mary whispered as she slowly approached the body, gun extended toward him. Vergil remained where he was, giving the whole scene a very close look. Mary reached his body, and crouched down to feel his pulse. Then her head dipped down, dejected, and her gun clattered out of her hand, falling to the floor, forgotten. Vergil slowly stepped forward.

"He's dead..." She said in a low voice. "But who..."

"Most likely, my dear brother tired of the charade, and decided it was time to dispose of him." Vergil said. Mary made no move to get up.

"Do you know, what hurts the most?" Vergil said nothing, deciding to let the woman get whatever she had to say out. "I...I loved him once. Truly, I did. Me, my mother, and him...we were happy. I would have trusted him with anything. I think...that's why it hurt so much, when he killed her. I didn't only lose a mother that day. I lost the father I thought I knew. I lost my happy life. I even lost the ability to trust in anyone. After all, if even he could turn out to be a monster..."

She started sobbing, and some tears started falling on Arkham's body. "All this time, I've always wondered...was it all a lie? From the beginning? Was he always just putting on an act, stringing us both along? Or...did something happen? Something that changed that kind, loving man I knew into a monster? And now...now I'll never know."

She continued to sit there and cry, and Vergil, for one of the few times in his life, found himself unsure how to handle this. He was no good with comforting people, not someone equipped to deal with someone's deep seated trauma. Yet, if he just walked away, this woman would die. Whenever slaughtered by a demon while in no condition to fight them, or at her own hands, he knew not, but the result would be the same.

"This was supposed to end, by  _my_  hand." She sobbed. He waited a few more moments, to see if she said anything else.

"Get up." He eventually said. She sobbed for a few more seconds before getting out a sentence.

"Just go...I don't care anymore."

Shaking his head, he reached down, grabbed her arm, and dragged her to her feet. She didn't resist, continuing to look at Arkham's body.

"Look at me."

Slowly, she looked up at Vergil, her face covered in tears.

"Even if you had those answers, would it have changed anything? Would you have decided to spare him if he gave one over the other?"

"I...no."

"Then why are you torturing yourself over it?" She tried to look away, but he grabbed her chin and forced her to face him. "Such questions do nothing but cause you grief. His thoughts, they should mean nothing to you. You were happy. Those feelings were not fake.  _That_ is all that should matter to you. That is the only thing in your control. "

"But, that doesn't matter, he still killed her, he still took that away from me, and-"

"Then find it again." She blinked. "Your life revolved around him. And with that meaning suddenly cut out, you feel empty inside, as if there is nothing to live for."

"...Yes."

"Whenever or not you succeeded in dealing the killing blow, you would be facing this same crisis. This is the hole you've dug for yourself. And unless you can find a way out, it will become your grave." A gasp from her told him he was at least getting her to hear him. "It is not a hole I can bring you out of, nor anyone else. Only you can find the meaning you want in your life."

His words seemed to be having the intended impact, and slowly, the tears stopped. Vergil reached into a pocket of his coat, and offered her a handkerchief that he happened to be carrying, usually used to clean his blade.

"Clean yourself up. Tears don't suit you, woman."

She took the handkerchief, and started wiping her face off.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you're an asshole?"

"Few have the guts to say it to my face."

She snorted in amusement. "I can understand that. I think...somewhere, deep inside, I knew what you said is true. But I needed to hear someone else say it. So, thanks. For telling me what I needed to hear, and not being afraid to be blunt about it. That helped."

"You did tell me not to coddle you."

She chuckled. "That I did."

Vergil was still unsatisfied. Something was bothering him about all this. The scene seemed...too perfect. A situation that seemed custom designed to break this woman, an obstacle, conveniently dead...and something else was off. He continued to stare at the body, then looked back at the handkerchief in the woman's hand. Not used often, usually when there was blood on his blade, he would just flick it off-

_Blood._

He looked back down at the body, suddenly realizing what he was seeing. And what he wasn't. Slowly, he walked back over to where she had been kneeling, picked up her gun, and walked back to her, handing it to her.

"What-"

"Take it, and open your eyes, woman." She took the gun, giving Vergil a confused look. "You've seen enough dead bodies, correct?" She nodded. "Then look at this one. And see what is missing. Your fight is not over yet."

He walked back over, next to Arkham as her eyes went wide, and she came to the same realization as Vergil. Then he drew his blade, and swung for Arkham's neck. In that split second, Arkham vanished, and as his sword impacted the ground, a long nosed clown demon finished sprinting behind them both. Mary quickly spun, training her pistol on it as he laughed.

"Oh, very good, Vergil! Well done, well done!" He mockingly clapped. "What gave it away?"

"Had Dante truly killed you  _here_ , there would be far more blood on the ground then there is. And he would not have bothered moving your body."

" _Bastard!"_ Mary yelled.

"Oh, and that was such a touching moment. If I had a heart, why, it might even bring a tear to my eye!" She fired her pistol at him, and he quickly ran out of the room back in the way they had come in. She started to run after him, only to pause, and glance back at Vergil. Vergil, for his part, simply gave her a nod, then turned around and started walking.

* * *

She found herself back on the long bridge. Said bridge, thanks to a key they had used, was now extending directly over the pit. Over on another platform they had yet to get to, Jester was standing, slapping his ass at her.

"Too slow! Can't catch me now, Mary! Why don't you go have yourself another cry?"

She pulled out her missile launcher.

"Uh oh."

He quickly sprinted away before she fired. It was only at this moment that she realized Vergil's handkerchief was still in her hand. She took a second to shove it into one of her pouches, making a mental note to return it later. Then, she aimed the rocket launcher, and then fired her bayonet out, attaching it to the wall, and then zipped her way across the pit, landing in front of the door.

She ran into the room, finding the only remarkable thing of note a set of spiral stairs. Switching back to her pistols, she started running down the stairs, only to catch sight of Jester sprinting into some kind of hidden door on the stairs. She quickly sprinted after him, said door slamming shut behind her. Then, the floor under her feet abruptly dropped out, and she found herself sliding rather then running along the floor.

After a few moments of sliding, she found herself deposited into a small, dark room, one with a metal gate in front of it that seemed to lead to other identically shaped rooms, with several passages also bared by metal gates. Some kind of maze. Luckily, all the gates seemed to be open, save for the one directly behind her that seemed to lead out of the room. She raised her guns, and started to advance.

"You have more in common with the demons then you realize, Mary."

"Shut up."

"Those two brothers? The Sons of Sparda? They too, lost a mother to the demons. Sacrificed herself, to save them."

She took a deep breath as she rounded a corner, determined to stay focused, and not let her father get to her this time.

"In truth, I believe that we humans, and demons, are not so different. The two brothers, they are a case study in this. Both with the blood of both humans, and demons in their veins. Both of who suffered the same trauma. One realized the meaninglessness of this world, and did his best to tear himself away from it, to the point of pushing his own kin away. He would destroy this world, just to spite that which he hates."

"The other, he strove for years to resist his impulses, to lie to himself, deny him that which is his birthright. You trust in this man, Mary, but his power has grown considerably since this day began. For a man such as him, it would only take a small push in the right direction to turn him to Evil."

"You're wrong!" She yelled, as she turned another corner, firing at a shadow that appeared to be him but did not end up being him.

"Humans are no different in this. All men are driven by wants. All men desire, all men are driven by temptations, and the only difference is how willing they are to grasp them. Men are shackled by society, by laws, rules that scare the weak willed into obedience, into ignoring their desires. But demons, they are not bound by such things. The only law demons obey is "The strong prosper". I wish to break the seal. I will open the gate, connect the two worlds. I will claim the power of the legendary Sparda. And then, I shall rule over this wasteland, engulfed with pandemonium. Most humans, yes, they shall die. But for a select few strong humans, they may yet prosper in my new world."

She didn't say anything, didn't have words. How do you respond to a madman like this? She'd called him a monster a thousand times already, but this...

"It's not too late. You have grown much, since that day, Mary. Far more then I could have dreamed. You could be one of those. With the power of Sparda, I will be supreme among all. And I could bestow power on others. I still remember. I remember the oath you swore, on her grave."

Mary gasped. She knew exactly what he was talking about, and she had been sure she was alone on that day.

"You...you were there?"

"I was  _always_  there. Did you not swear to your mother, that you would destroy all demons? Every one? The words of a delusional child, deep in grief. Only, with my help, you could make those words reality."

"You would never-"

"Wouldn't I? I seek to destroy this world, and the demons are a necessary step. But I will not need them forever. Indeed, some would no doubt become rivals to my own power, just as they were to Sparda. And so, their deaths would not trouble me. I will take you, dear, sweet child, and turn you into the very avatar of Wrath. You will be the most powerful being in existence, next to me, and once they do their work, I will unleash you on them. And in that time, you will grow stronger still. And once the last demon falls to your fiery rage, then we will settle our affairs. Then, all you need do is kill me, and your vengeance will be complete at last."

She closed her eyes, and shook her head.

"You're a madman. And even if I believed everything else you said, even if that's what I wanted, even if I was willing to go to that length to kill them..."

She opened her eyes again.

"I'm not here for revenge anymore."

There was a pause, before, in pure shock, he spoke.

"What!?"

"I loved my mother. Just like I loved you, once. And when you killed her, I hated you. I still do. But I let that hatred control me. I let it change me, become who I am. But I can't keep living like that."

"Then why are you here!?" He yelled in confusion.

"Oh, don't get confused. I'm still going to kill you. The only thing that's changed is why. I'm not killing you for revenge. I'm killing you to put down a monster that's threatening this world."

There was a long pause before he spoke again, clearly angry.

"This changes little. Willing or not, I will have you, my daughter. You will serve me. Once I have the power, I will claim you. And after a century or two of torment, I am sure you will find that fire again."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a shadow start to rush toward her, and she spun on her heel to aim.

* * *

The platform came to a halt.

For the last 5 minutes, Vergil had been stuck on a tiny moving platform on a rail, fighting off demons while going around what felt like the entire circumference of the tower. But now he had reached his destination, a giant building only accessible by a very narrow set of stairs. On either side of said stairs was a gigantic pit of lava, for reasons known only to Sparda. Slowly, Vergil ascended these stairs, and entered the building.

Inside was best described as some form of torture chamber, with lots of cages hanging from the ceiling, not to mention a gaping hole in it. Seeing nothing, Vergil stepped forward. Then, as he reached the middle, he paused, and looked up.

"SPARDA!"

Sure enough, a giant winged demon flew through the hole and slammed into the ground in front of him. Vergil cracked his neck as he sized this new demon up. It was about 3 stories tall, had light glowing out of parts of its body, a horn that came out of the back of its head, extended most of the distance toward the front, and then cut off. Most notably for Vergil, it appeared to be missing an eye. A clear blind spot.

"That odor...I know it!"

"The blood of every other demon foolish enough to stand before me today? Is that what you're smelling?" Vergil asked as he adjusted his collar.

"It's the stench of betrayal! The odor of that accursed Sparda!"

Vergil looked very unimpressed.

"I will annihilate every last blood relation of SPARDA!"

Vergil just shook his head. "I do not understand why my father did not finish you. But I suppose I will be happy to do it for him."

The demon took a wild swing at Vergil, who easily evaded it by teleporting upward. Cerberus appeared in his hands as he spun in midair, rapidly striking him with the heads of the weapon and stunning the demon for a moment. By the time the demon had regained its senses, Vergil was nowhere to be seen. Then, he heard music coming from above him.

Unknown to him, Vergil was now standing on his head and playing Nevan, and soon, a lightning bolt dropped down on him. Roaring, he tried to swipe above his head, only for Vergil to jump off, spinning in midair as he enlarged the weapon to its scythe form and slashed the demon in the face. Roaring, he swung his fist again, only this time causing a small explosion where he struck. This, Vergil avoided by teleporting slightly further then he did the last time.

"I believe I begin to see why you still live. All you are is a brute. Unworthy of even staining Sparda's sword.

The demon got down on all fours and roared, before rushing forward. This time, at least he had to put actual effort into his roll out of the way. The demon stood back up as it reached the wall, and stomped angerly, causing one of the cages to fall in front of it. Vergil slowly reached for his katana, and unsheathed it an inch, causing an energy sphere to appear in front of the demon's face before it erupted into slashes.

The demon staggered backward, not expecting this. Vergil teleported forward, and physically kicked the cage with a roundhouse kick, sending it flying directly into the demon's head. It collided with the wall as it was pushed back.

"SPARDA!"

The demon's wings exploded out of the back without warning, and four spears of light energy of some form. Vergil moved himself to the demon's blind side as he drew his katana, slashing each spear out of the air in turn as they moved to impale him. Because he was on the blind side, the demon had to turn to face him.

By the time he did, 8 summoned swords were floating next to Vergil, the first already hurtling toward the demon's eye. Naturally, he had no time to evade this, and staggered backward, grabbing at his eye and lucky to not be permanently blinded from the repeated blows. He slowly removed his hand from the eye, only for Vergil, who had been waiting for his opening, to teleport above the demon and deliver a falling slash, finishing the job and slicing the demon's remaining eye in half.

Vergil, wasting no time, transformed into his demonic form, and reached down to clutch his blade.

"The odious one who's heart pumps the blood of Sparda!"

Vergil started to gather power, an audible hum slowly building.

"Though my sight is gone, I remember your scent!"

The power continued to build.

"I shall hunt you down through eternity if I must! Until I rid this earth of your foul smell!"

Then Vergil vanished, and within the span of a half second, a blur would flash across the battlefield, delivering a hundred cuts at once. Vergil reappeared, kneeling.

"You may try." He said as he slowly sheathed his blade. "But you fail to realize. You are already dead."

His blade finished entering the sheath, and the demon fell into bloody chunks. Said chunks vanished as Vergil rose, and a pair of gauntlets and grieves appeared on his hands and feet. He gave them both a careful examination, and nodded.

"This will do."

He started walking again.

"How pathetic." He muttered to himself. "None of these demons are a threat anymore. Such is the power I've gained. It would seem there is only one worthy opponent left in this tower."

He cracked his neck.

"Don't disappoint me, Dante."


	9. Revelations

_Once again I have made the decision to skip a boss, this time, Geryon. Let's be honest, that wasn't the best boss fight anyway, it was much better done in 5. This should be the last of the skipped bosses (Not counting the mission 18 boss rush) as well, although that doesn't mean the way the remaining boss fights are going to play out won't change._

* * *

 

He had reached what was clearly his goal. A gigantic door, held shut with metal bars, stood before him. He reached into his pocket, withdrawing the item that was clearly the key to the room, and inserted it. Slowly, the door opened, and Vergil stepped inside. Within, he found himself in a gigantic circular room. Most of the room was taken by a circular, elevated platform, in the center of which was a basin sunken into the floor, and in the back of which hung a bell, of which there had been several throughout the tower.

Dante stood in the center of the room, waiting. "Took your time getting here."

"Then perhaps you should have just waited outside for me."

"I had my reasons. Sides, had to give you time to test the new powers, right? So? What do you think?"

Vergil paused, giving the question honest consideration. "This power...it feels good. Nothing's been able to touch me since I gained it."

Dante nodded. "Do you see now? Do you see why I don't give a damn? These humans, they're like flies next to us. But they're all convinced they know better then anyone else. They're convinced that they  _matter_. They don't realize, how easy it would be, how easily they could be killed at any time."

There was a long pause as Vergil considered this. "I will not deny what you say."

"No? You done fighting for them then?"

"No. Quite the opposite. It is that stubbornness that makes them different." Dante cocked his head, clearly not getting it. "It is easy to be brave when you are like us. When you have power. But to be brave when you don't? To stand against a foe who could kill you with a mere thought, who you know you cannot defeat, and still refuse to kneel, even at the cost of your life? That is a power of its own. That is why they deserve to be protected. "

"Did you take this shit out of a self help book or something?" Dante asked, laughing. "You're talking out of your ass, bro."

"Our mother was a human, as well." Vergil said. Dante's expression darkened as he continued. "Or have you forgotten? What would she think, were she to hear you talking like this?"

"You don't get to talk about mother." Dante said as he drew his sword. "Not after you let her die."

"Do you think I wanted that!?" Vergil yelled, snapping. "Do you  _honestly_ think I wanted her to die!? No! She did that of her own free will! She died to keep us safe!" Vergil started pacing back and forth, waging a finger at Dante. "But it's so easy, to just blame everyone else, and refuse to accept reality!"

A long silence passed between them. Dante broke it first.

"This is where it ends."

"I concur."

He gave a grim smile "One last game."

"Our differences, they will not be settled by words. Our philosophies, they cannot coexist. And so, whoever wins this contest, between equals, is in the right."

"I'm down. And how about, we make this interesting? Up the stakes a bit?" He reached into his pocket, and took out an amulet, both halves now connected to each other. "Scarface had a plan. He was gonna use this, and our blood, to open the hellgate. Then, he told me Sparda's power was on the other side, just waiting to be grabbed."

"What-"

"He said he was gonna let me destroy it. Probably a crock of shit, I'm sure he was gonna try to grab it for himself. But I killed him, so that don't matter now."

"He still lives."

"That right? Hmmmmm. Next time I guess I cut the head off. Point is, I still find the idea of a big old "Screw you" to dad kind of intriguing. So, you lose, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do."

"You won't be dissuaded?"

"Nope."

"Fine. But then I set my own terms. If you lose, you will come with me, set aside this rivalry, and learn what it is I see in the humans firsthand."

He chuckled. "Never happen. But alright. That's what you want, you got it." He lifted a hand and waved two fingers at Vergil. "Come on."

Vergil grabbed his blade, and charged forward, drawing and slashing his sword as he neared Dante. Dante teleported upward, above Vergil, and attempted to perform a downward slash on Vergil's head. Before he got there, however, Vergil flicked his blade in an upward slash, catching Dante mid attack and causing him to get launched back up.

He attempted to follow up with a downward slash against Dante, but Dante quickly lifted his arms and parried the blade out of the way with his bare hands. Then he drew his guns and, still in midair, started spinning, firing his handguns directly down at Vergil. Vergil raised his arm, catching a few of the bullets on it, which did minor damage.

Dante landed in a crouch, and aimed his guns, continuing to fire at Vergil. Rather then just teleport out of the way, this time Vergil started spinning his katana in front of him, catching the bullets as they flew at him. Once Dante stopped, he placed the bullets in a line next to him, then flicked them back at Dante. Dante swung his sword, cutting them in half as they flew at him.

"Get your own." He said in annoyance.

"As you wish."

Suddenly, 6 summoned swords appeared in a circle around Dante, and as this happened, Vergil reached for his katana and launched an orb of energy at him. The orb started to explode into slashes at the same time that the swords converged on Dante. He lifted his hands, and managed to negate some of the damage with a block, but still took a noticeable blow.

Dante then exploded in red demonic energy, and turned into his demon form, one which looked almost exactly the same as Vergil's own form, save for the horns. Vergil followed suit, and changed into his own demon form. The two charged each other, each sword chash powerful enough to create shockwaves across the room. After several moments of this, Vergil suddenly switched to his new gloves and grieves, and swung several punches at Dante. The first one, catching him off guard, connected, but he was able to block and deflect the next several blows.

Then Vergil applied a kick to Dante's chest, and sent him into the air. He followed up with a second kick, the force of which was enough to send even Vergil into the air. He finished by delivering a diving kick to Dante's face, slamming them both into the ground. Dante rolled to get up, and Vergil rushed forward, jabbing at Dante's face. Dante ducked out of the way at the last second, then delivered his own jab, the energy of the blocked hits behind it, and sent Vergil flying away, forcibly removing him from his demon form. Dante reverted a moment later, his own energy expended.

Vergil could not help but laugh. "Now I'm motivated!"

The two charged each other again, and it was becoming more and more clear to both of them that they were evenly matched. Each time one of them scored a blow, the other followed up with their own a moment later. Blood started to freely spill into the basin. After a good minute of back and forth between them, both of them managed to deliver a serious blow to the other at the same time, and both of them staggered backward, falling to one knee.

The sound of applause caused them both to look over at the door. At said door, Jester was standing next to a black skinned demon with no identifying features save that he was human shaped. In his hand, he was holding a knocked out Mary by the back of her neck.

"Bravo, bravo!" He said as the demon dropped Mary to the floor. "There were a few screw ups, but still, I never dreamed things would go so well! You both knew exactly what I was doing by the end and still, you did exactly as I wanted!"

He turned to the demon, who had not said a word and was busy staring at Vergil. "Oh, and thanks for the assist, big guy, I was really in a pickle for a minute there. Go ahead and skedaddle now, you'll get your reward later, when I'm done."

The demon then melted away, vanishing into the ground. Jester turned back as Dante rose to his feet.

"Gonna wish you'd stayed dead, freak." He said as he pulled out his pistols and started firing. However, Jester literally started to dance across the ceiling as he easily dodged the shots. He jumped off the ceiling, kicking Dante in the face and knocking him to the ground. Still standing on him, Jester reached down and grabbed the amulet.

"Thanks for holding this for me, devil boy!" He yelled. "Now-"

He cut himself off as Vergil ran at him, extending his arm and casually slamming the palm of his hand into Vergil's face, causing him to slide away next to Dante. He then took the amulet, and dropped it into the center basin. He turned back into his human form as he faced the demon brothers.

"To you both, I must thank you. Your undying hatred for each other greatly aided my plans. I would not have been able to do this had you both been at full power, and so it was necessary to turn you against each other first. "

As he spoke, Mary started to wake up. She had no idea where she was or what was going on, but she could hear her father's voice, which was good enough for her. She opened her eyes, reached for her gun, and twisted her body to point it at him. Only, by the time she had done this, he was already gone. Then, she was grabbed by the top of her head.

"It's time for your spanking, my dear!" He then rammed her head into the ground several times before shifting back to his human form.

"Now, I need one more key." He said as he slowly reached into his pocket and withdrew what was clearly a ritual knife. "A set of Sparda's blood. Two amulets. But there is one more thing I need."

"That knife..." She muttered. "Is that-"

"Yes. The same one I used on your mother. I kept it. For you see, I knew this day would come. Sparda sacrificed two things to suppress the tremendous force of this tower. His own devil's blood, and a mortal priestess. And so, I needed you. In who's body flows the same blood as the sacrificed woman."

He rammed the knife into her left leg, and she screamed in pain. "His spell cannot be undone without your blood. This is why you were allowed to survive for so long, my dear. Because I needed you. None of this would have been possible, without you. Had you at any time abandoned your wrathful crusade against me, had you stopped following me like a lost puppy, had you ever moved on, then this would not have been possible."

Not an entirely true statement, he could have always just found her and dragged her to the tower when the time came, but the risk could have been much higher, and he had found a not inconsiderable amount of amusement in nurturing his wrathful daughter.

"And so, I thank you." Mary's fist clenched in anger on the floor. "Now, we sit and wait. For soon, I will become a god. I will claim Sparda's power. And then, everything will be mine!"

Vergil glanced over at Dante, who had gotten back to his knees. "Truce?"

"Truce."

Arkham was now busy laughing, and not looking down at the ground. And so, when Mary suddenly found a second wind, and spun on the ground, getting back to her feet and drawing her rocket launcher to point the bayonet at Arkham's throat in a single motion, he was caught off guard.

"Not on my watch."

Then, he felt the touch of Vergil and Dante's blades on the back of his neck.

"It's over."

"I always did find clowns irritating as hell."

Arkham chuckled. "Impressive. I expected nothing less from the devil's descendants." He watched as, unseen to the others, the basin in the center of the room rose. "But you are too late. The seal is broken."

He closed his eyes.

"Let's welcome chaos."

Then, the raised part of the room they were standing on started to move, and the floor started glowing red. The other three, not expecting this, all staggered for a brief moment. This was all the time Arkham needed, as he ducked below the swords, the three blades clashing on one another as each of them attempted to kill Arkham, and spun with his leg extended, kicking each of them in turn off of the platform and to the ground below.

* * *

Mary woke up, and instantly, she felt pain in her head. Her head had impacted with the wall during her fall, which resulted in her getting knocked out again. She looked down at her leg wound, which hadn't bled too badly, meaning she couldn't have been out too long. She reached for a pouch, withdrawing some basic medical supplies. She quickly disinfected the wound, then wrapped it in a bandage, reflecting that she was lucky it hadn't hit anything major. Still, it was likely to scar. Not the first she'd have, but likely to be one of the larger and more visible ones.

Once done, she got to her feet, looking around. At first, she didn't see anyone, and thought she'd been left behind. Then she saw Vergil, about 30 feet away, standing at the edge of a pit that had apparently been created when the tower rose. At first, she had no idea why.

"Vergil?" She called. He showed no sign of hearing her. Then she looked around closer, and realized she didn't see his brother. She could feel her heart suddenly sink as she realized what must have happened.

"Vergil?" She called, softer, as she slowly walked toward him. As she got within 10 feet of him, she heard him speak.

"I wasn't strong enough." He said, looking down at the pit. "I came here to save you, brother. But I wasn't strong enough to do it. For years, I wandered this planet, defending these humans. And now they've taken you away from me. Had I not avoided gaining power, would things have been different? Would I have had the strength to stop him? Would you still be alive?"

Mary paused, frankly unsure of what to say. But she knew she couldn't just leave him here like this. "Vergil..." She slowly walked forward, only to come to a halt as she got close enough to see his face, and saw that there was a tear going down his face.

"Perhaps, you were right, Dante. Perhaps I wasted my time, defending them. Time I could have spent gaining power. I will not make that mistake again. The humans, they are not worthy. I will claim the power of our father. The power of Sparda. And with it, I will cleanse this the planet of all the filth."

Gradually, Vergil's face started to twist into one of anger and rage. Mary could feel her blood running cold. She had never heard Vergil talk like this. He turned and started walking away, and she ran after him. "Vergil, wait-

In an instant, his sword was drawn, and she almost ran right into it, the tip hovering an inch from her neck. "You. Woman. Had you not been here, had I killed you the first time we met, he would still be alive."

She could feel tears starting to fall down her face, as the horror of what she was seeing set in, all too familiar feelings returning to her.

"Vergil...please...I'm sorry, but-"

She suddenly found herself on the floor, as he teleported forward and backhanded her in the span of an instant.

"Nothing you say will change anything. Leave. Never let me see your face again, woman. Because the next time I see you..."

He turned, slowly sheathing his blade.

"You will die."

He walked forward, slashing a large pillar and stepping past it as it fell, blocking any way of following him. She could hear him say one more thing before he walked out of the room, less a statement and more of a mantra.

"I need more power..."

It took her a few minutes, but she picked herself up off of the ground. She could have sat there, kept crying and feeling sorry for herself. But she knew she had to act.

Demon or not, Vergil had helped her when she had given up. He had told her to find a new purpose. And right now, she knew what she wanted to do. She was going after him. She had already saw one man who she once respected turn to evil, and become her worst enemy. In the past, she had, deep down, held onto a childish hope that she might be able to fix him, that she could convince him to abandon his evil. By now, she knew that was just that, a dream.

But Vergil, she still thought had a chance. She knew what he was going through. He was torn up by grief, just like she had been so long ago. This wasn't him. She had to get to him, had to talk to him, to try to get him to snap out of it before it was too late. And if she couldn't do it, if he killed her, then so be it. She wouldn't be able to live with herself, wouldn't be able to keep functioning if she had to continue to life her life, afraid of the next betrayal.

Deciding that the quickest way was the most direct one, she aimed her rocket launcher directly up, at the platform that appeared to have extended all the way up the entire length of the tower, and fired her zip cord, letting it secure itself to the tower and rapidly pull her up.


	10. Battle for the Soul

Mary stood in a large library, like many rooms in this tower, circular in shape, with bookcases placed in such a way that there were three circles that functioned as rows, the direct middle one, a middle one, and the one at the edge. She currently had her back against a bookcase, and stood in the middle row, out of sight of the outer one.

It had taken her the better part of an hour to get to this point, and while she considered herself to be in excellent shape, the sheer fatigue and exhaustion was starting to get to her. This had been, easily, the longest day of her life, and she knew she wasn't going to be able to keep this up much longer before her body outright collapsed on her. But she still had one thing to do. As she stood there, hands on her knees, breathing heavily and trying to prepare herself for the next step, she heard a door open. She caught her breath, forcing herself to remain silent as she heard even footsteps walking at a hurried, yet measured pace through the room.

"Vergil?" She said, and the footsteps came to a halt. "Vergil, please. Just hear me out."

"So. You choose death, woman?"

"If that's what it takes? Yes."

A moment of tense silence passed, and she took this as her sign to continue. "I know what it feels like, to lose family. I know it hurts-"

"You know nothing!" She heard the sound that Vergil's teleports made, and quickly rolled as his katana slashed through the bookcase her back had been to, missing her neck by a half second. "Weak, insolent human!"

She quickly ran, diving behind another bookcase farther away. "Maybe I am weak, but you don't need strength to understand what someone's going through!"

"The words of one without power." She heard his footsteps start to slowly approach her position, and started to move herself, doing her best to make as little noise as possible. "Might controls everything. And without strength, you cannot protect anything."

Something told her to look up, and she suddenly saw at least 20 summoned swords hovering above her head. Gasping, she ran as they started to fall, one of them cutting her arm and drawing blood, and she had to bite back a scream.

"Strength only gets you so far!" She yelled, clutching her wound as she tried to keep moving away from Vergil. "You can't force someone to care about you!"

"What does that matter, if they're dead because you failed to protect them?"

"You already have strength!"

"I need more." Vergil's footsteps quickened.

"You can't blame yourself! It's not your fault he's dead!"

Vergil's footsteps halted for a moment.

"No. It's not."

Then she heard a massive crash, and the sound of a heavy impact. Then she saw the bookcase she was behind start to fall, and realized that he had kicked one of them, causing a domino effect. She scrambled out of the way as it smashed into the ground.

"Humans, they are the ones responsible."

He suddenly appeared, standing on top of the fallen bookshelf that had almost flattened her. Then he turned to look at her. Desperate to buy herself more time, Mary reached for her sub machine gun, firing at Vergil as she ran, shots that he casually deflected with his weapon's sheath by just waving it in front of each bullet with no effort.

"Every human isn't as bad as he is! You can't just blame them all for the actions of one madman!"

"Even those who are not, they are sheep. Content to live their lives in ignorance, to rely on others for protection. They too, will learn the error of their ways."

She suddenly ran hard into something and recoiled backward, falling to the ground. She looked up to see Vergil standing over her, sword drawn.

"Vergil, please, I know you're better then this!"

"You know nothing about me, woman." He said, slowly making his way toward her. She tried to crawl backward, only to find her back in a corner. She reached behind herself, clutching the missile launcher on her back as he continued to speak. "Or have you forgotten already, what I am?"

He swung his sword down at her, and she quickly moved the rocket launcher in front of her, blocking the hit even as the force fully pushed her into the floor.

"I remember. And you helped me, more then you know." She said, even as her arms strained against his blade. "I never thought demons were capable of anything but destroying. And for the most part, that may be true. But, when I saw you down there, standing over that pit, I realized something. If even a devil may cry, when a loved one dies….maybe they're not all bad. Maybe I can put my trust in one."

"Foolishness." He exerted more pressure, and casually sent the rocket launcher flying away, and put the tip of the blade to her throat, drawing blood. She closed her eyes.

"Then maybe I am a fool. And if I die for that, so be it. But at least I'll have died for something I believed in. At least I'll have found a meaning to my life." Vergil cocked his head, and, perhaps sensing his hesitation, she opened her eyes again. "You taught me that"

"You can't bring him back."

"No, I can't. And for that, I'm sorry. But I can bring you back."

He shook his head. "There's nothing to bring back."

"I don't believe that."

"And what makes you so sure?"

"If you were certain you were right, you would have killed me in the control room. You could have killed me at any point in here. You still can. You're not a man who would take half measures, if you were as sure as you say." He took a deep breath, continuing to shake his head. "Somewhere, deep in your soul, you still have doubts. You still remember who you are, what's right and wrong."

Slowly, he lifted the sword, holding it so the point was several feet above her face, pointed directly down at her. She took a deep breath, closing her eyes again.

"I know the grief hurts. And if you have to blame me, if that's what it takes for you to get past it, then I'll accept that. Just….. before you kill me, promise me one thing. Don't let your grief consume you, like I like it consume me. Don't let your emotions control you."

Unseen to Mary, Vergil's eyes widened at those last words, as he was reminded of his mother saying the same thing, all those years ago. He came to his decision, and brought his sword down.

A moment later, Mary opened her eyes, and looked to see the sword sticking out of the ground directly next to her head.

"That won't be necessary." He said, as he extended a hand to lift her off the ground. She took it, and smiled in relief.

"Are you….ok now?" She asked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"This loss…..it is not something I will work past overnight"

"It never is."

"But….allowing myself to go down such a path will only bring more pain." Mary nodded. "Thank you." Vergil said. A moment of silence passed between them.

"You're still going?"

"He cannot be allowed to claim the power of Sparda. So yes."

"What will you do with it?"

"…..I have yet to decide."

"Well, whatever you decide, so long as you remember what I said, I'll stand behind you."

They stared at each other for a few long moments. Mary broke the stare first, looking down at her feet.

"Listen, I'm not...I don't think I'm ready for..."

Vergil held up a finger to silence her. "When this is over, we'll talk more."

She slowly nodded, and Vergil turned to walk away. Before he left the room, she spoke one last time.

"Mary" He stopped. "My name."

He thought about it for a long moment. "It suits you." Then he left. She sighed, and felt all the adrenaline rush out of her body. Slowly, she stumbled backward, leaning against a bookcase as she slumped to the ground, exhaustion defeating her, and fell unconscious.


	11. Past and Future

_You are going to notice major changes to the mechanics of the next fight. Anyone who's actually played DMC3 can probably figure out why. The mechanics of the Doppelganger fight are….not the best. And I feel like typing about how Vergil has to run around a room and wack lights to turn them on 20 times as much as you probably feel like reading about them. So we're going to do something different, yet still thematically appropriate. Enjoy._

* * *

After a long climb back up the tower, Vergil found himself back on the top of the tower, ascending the final ramp before the summit. From this position, he could now see the portal to hell in its entirety. A gigantic hole in the sky, with an otherworldly landscape clearly visible beyond. If it wasn't for the fact that is was floating in the sky, it would appear one could just walk through it and into hell.

The portal itself was also surrounded by red bat like beings, a weak variant of demon that Vergil had already encountered multiple times, but not in numbers like these. However, they seemed too far away to notice him. Before he reached the final set of stairs, a thick, black mist appeared in front of him inside of one of the archways that littered the path. He stopped to examine it. It did not seem to be advancing beyond the arch. However, it was also not moving. The message was clear. If he wanted to move forward, he would have to enter it.

He paused only to run his hand through his slicked back hair before he advanced through the mist. Inside, he found himself standing in a large, dark room that appeared to reside within a castle. A small balcony that overlooked the room sat behind him, on which sat a throne, accessible by stairs on each side of it. In front of him was a raised area with 2 steps leading to it, and beyond that, a gigantic glass window covered the wall directly in front of him. Outside was a view of what seemed to be an oecan, with a violent thunderstorm raging outside, the occasional lightning bolt lighting up the room for a brief second. Vergil took a long moment to examine where he was before he spoke.

"Reveal yourself, and cease wasting my time."

In the throne, a dark puddle gathered, one that rapidly changed into the form of a man. One that looked just like Vergil, only with some….changes. The most clear one was that he was dressed not in Vergil's coat, but in a fancy, purple coat with frills on it, one that looked more like it had come out of a previous century then anything of the modern day. In addition, this man's skin was warped and cracked, with blue veins visible in various places on Vergil's face. It turned to look at Vergil, head resting in its hand.

"Power…..more power…" It uttered in a twisted, warped version of Vergil's voice. The two stared each other down.

"So." Vergil said. "This is what would have become of me, had I continued down that path? Is that what you're trying to say?"

The false Vergil did not move or speak.

"And, I suppose, that by defeating me, you hope to drag me back to that same, self destructive path? Or perhaps, you think to take my place by killing me?"

It continued to stare silently, and Vergil shook his head.

"Pathetic. To think I almost allowed myself to become you. A leach, a parasite, a slave to my own desires."

This seemed to enrage the man, and he rose from the chair, vanishing and reappearing in front of the window.

"Stand aside, scum. Or be slain."

The man suddenly clutched his chest, and roared. Slowly, his body twisted and morphed, growing to almost double its size. The fancy coat vanished, replaced by a green set of armor, and a long, red cape. The katana it held transformed into a gigantic greatsword, glowing with blue demonic fire. The only thing that did not change was his face, still uncovered, save for the fact that his eyes were now glowing red. Vergil said nothing, only unsheathing his blade an inch.

The demon lifted his free hand behind himself, gathering energy into its palm. After a moment, it unleashed a blast of blue fire at Vergil. Vergil leaped over this blast, and aimed his foot as his gauntlets and grieves appeared on his body. He launched a drop kick at the demon's face.

However, the demon was quick to lift its sword, blocking the kick. Vergil bounced off the sword, jumping backward even as the demon ran at him, swinging his flameing greatsword, which was now providing most of the light in the room. Vergil ducked out of the way of the first vertical slash, then it went for a horizontal slash. Vergil ducked the blow, and came out of the crouch kicking at the demon's chest. The demon grunted, staggering backward but remaining on its feet. Vergil followed up on this opening by punching and kicking the demon several more times as it tried to raise its arm to block the hits.

Then, it suddenly erupted into flames, and vanished. It reappeared floating above the throne, and extended its hand. In front of him, a series of summoned swords appeared in a line in front of him, and then rapidly fired at Vergil. He rolled out of the way, more appearing in a circle above him even as he did. He prepared to roll again, only for the swords to suddenly shift position, moving from over his head to surrounding him in a circle. Not having time to jump, he drew his sword, allowing the force of the draw to spin him in a full circle, destroying the swords as they shot at him.

Then Vergil lifted his own hand, and his own summoned swords surrounded the floating demon. The demon made another motion, and his own swords appeared around him, pointed directly upward in a shield. The swords clashed, all of them exploding into shards as they collided. Vergil, however, did not stand idle during this, and ran forward, jumping first onto the balcony, and then up and off of the throne. He cleared the rest of the distance between them with a teleport, and then preformed a three hit combo on the unprepared demon, two swift horizontal strikes, and a brutally strong vertical slash that sent the demon to the ground to end it.

The demon vanished as he reappeared on the other side of the room. He lifted his hand backward, and started launching fireball after fireball, not relenting and teleporting away whenever Vergil started to close the gap. An irritating stalemate, and not one in Vergil's favor. So he decided to do something different. He waited, dodged a few more fireballs as he judged their timing, then unleashed a slash at the next one at the very last second. This resulted in the fireball being reflected right back at the demon.

The demon staggered back, both in shock and pain. Vergil teleported into close range with his gauntlets, and the demon attempted to swap to his fists and fight Vergil hand to hand. However, its bulk worked against him, as he was a bigger target, and his swings took longer to wind up and were thus easily predictable to the man who used an almost identical style. Thus, before long, the demon was launched across the room as it took a jumping uppercut to the face, and came to a halt on the floor, laying still.

"Enough." Vergil said. "You have lost. Now, kneel."

The demon dragged itself off of the floor, and assumed a kneeling position. Vergil nodded, and the demon suddenly glowed, before losing its form, and shifting into an identical copy of Vergil. Then, it rose, and started approaching Vergil, who did not move. As it reached Vergil, it faded away as it walked into him. Vergil examined his hand, nodding in approval of this new power, even as the world around him faded away.

* * *

Mary was awoken by the sounds of footsteps. She had no idea how long she had been out, and for a moment she thought Vergil had returned. But the footsteps were coming from the wrong direction. She heard a door open, and looked in that direction, only to gasp as she saw Dante walk in. He looked over at her and laughed.

"You look like you've seen a ghost."

She shook her head, wondering if she was somehow hallucinating. "I don't…..you were dead. We both thought you were dead!"

"Huh. Someone forgot to send me the memo. Sorry to disappoint." He looked around the room, at the slashed and kicked down bookcases. "Vergil didn't take it well?"

"I…..he…..he loves you, you know."

The amusement left Dante's face. "I know."

"He's a good man."

"And I'm not." It was said not as a question, but as a statement of fact.

"You could change. He doesn't think it's too late for you."

"Vergil can be a hardhead sometimes like that."

"I think we can all say that, can't we?" Mary said as she looked up at Dante. "You, me, him, we're all more alike then we'd like to admit."

"I hardly know you. The one time we met, you shot me in the head for saving your life "

"I'm sorry, for that. I wasn't in a good place. Nether was Vergil, after we thought you died. But he helped me through it, and I helped him through it. Just because you're in a bad place, doesn't mean you can't come out of it."

There was a long pause as Dante stared at her, and she looked back down at the ground. "He wants to help you. But he can't do that if you give up on yourself. Maybe I don't know you. But he does. And I know him. If he'll willing to believe in you, so am I."

Dante shook his head. "Bro scored himself a real winner, didn't he?" She didn't respond to that, and after a moment, he sighed. "I'd be a real jackass if I said no to a pretty girl. But I can't promise anything. Our differences, they go deeper then words." He spun on his heel, and walked away.

"I understand." There wasn't anything else she could say. The rest was up to them. She took a few more minutes to sit there, unsure of what to do now. She was too worried to fall back asleep, that much was clear to her. But she had some energy back now, enough to move around. So she picked herself up off the ground, and walked out, intending to wait outside of the gate and see what happened.


	12. True Power

_I apologize in advance if this ends up being one of the weaker fight scenes. Naturally, this boss fight and the scene won't really change a huge amount, and while I'm going to do my best to keep it interesting, the fact is, this is not a very strong boss in terms of how interesting it is. He's just a blob monster, and while thematically and in context it makes sense, that doesn't help me here. But don't worry because the next chapter should hopefully make up for it._

* * *

The demon world, referred to by many names by humans, was nothing like anything in the human world. This much, Vergil already knew. But it was one thing to know it, and another to see it with his own eyes. There was no rhyme or reason to what he saw. Each area, accessed by entering portals, as different as the next. Some blank, featureless rooms, save for a single dominating feature. Some, gigantic voids that seemed endless. Some, recreations of other rooms, of past conflicts. The laws of reality, gravity, physics, in the demon world, these were all far less firm then the human world.

On the other hand, Vergil was noticing one thing. There were far less demons here then he expected. He had entered with the expectation that he would have to cut his way through swaths of demons, cutting them down by the dozens. And while what demons he did encounter were powerful, they were hardly the endless forces, waiting to surge through the gate that he had been expecting.

Perhaps Arkham had killed most, although he found this unlikely. Perhaps they had already gone through. But Vergil's personal theory was that the demons, perhaps on an instinctual level, knew what this place was. What it held. To humans, Sparda was just a legend. It was hard to appreciate the true power behind the myth when none remained who had seen it. But demons, being more closely connected, much more able to sense the sheer power, and with there being many demons that still existed who had seen the legend in person, perhaps they had a deeper respect for Sparda, even as they despised him.

Vergil's personal theory seemed to be heightened by the fact that the very fabric of the world was bending to allow him progress. Vast stretches of empty space were filled even as he stepped forward by broken pieces of stone that reassembled at his very presence. And while he seemed to be moving between places at random, he knew, could feel it in his blood, that he was approaching his destination at a rapid pace.

Soon, he found himself walking over the final stones, and entered the location where Arkham waited. He entered a circular area, surrounded on all sides by random square pillars jutting out of an odd, pink, swirling material that yet still someone remained solid enough to walk on. White mist with random faces that appeared to be screaming covered the walls and ceiling. Vergil glanced around, searching for his prey. Then, he lifted his sword behind him, and unsheathed it enough to block the incoming sword strike from behind.

The man jumped backward, and Vergil could see that he had lost his human form, and transformed into the very image of Sparda. A being that very much resembled a man sized bug with a spike shaped ridge sticking out of the front of its chest. He also had a set of bug wings. The face was dominated by a giant pair of curved horns, narrow yellow slits for eyes, and a third eye that ran vertically up a ridge on the front of his head.

"Welcome." He said. "What do you think, after looking at your father's image?"

Vergil glared at him with the most contempt he had ever shown another man. "Worthless pest. Your very presence here is an insult to Sparda's name." Arkham's eyes narrowed in anger. "You have already been allowed to live for too long. "

"Fool! You cannot kill me! I am a god!"

"What you are is delusional." Vergil said as he shook his head. "You fail to realize one simple thing. Sparda, he was more than mere power. Power alone did not make the legend. His deeds, his actions, the lasting impact he left on the world...Sparda left behind a legacy, one that lives on to this very day. This is why his name is still spoken of with respect, with awe, 2000 years later."

"But you?" Vergil held up a finger and shook it back and forth. "You have no legacy. You managed, by accident I can only imagine, to create only one thing of worth, and then did your utmost to destroy her. You will die here, and your name will be forgotten by the world."

Arkham, rather than becoming angrier, laughed. "Big words. But can you talk big after seeing this?"

Arkham's form started to twist and mutate. "I can feel the devil's power overflowing my body! The power of Sparda!" He started to grow and grow, losing his former form until he had become what could be best described as a massive blob monster, with stubby legs and tentacles for arms. Fragments of his former form could be seen, with a giant red and blue eye, a pair of sharp jaws, and a jester's face all sticking out of the putrid mass of blue. Vergil looked on all of this, and looked very smug.

"A far more fitting form. No human can hope to ever control the power of Sparda. And you think to be called a god? Even the title of demon would be giving you too much credit."

He spun his sword in front of him for a moment before unsheathing it an inch.

"You are not worthy as my opponent."

Vergil ran at the giant blob, and slashed with his blade. And then slashed again, and again, and it was only by this point that Arkham managed to move himself enough to take a large, slow, lumbering swipe at Vergil, one which was all too easily evaded as Vergil teleported up into the air, drop kicking the blob somewhere in its center with his grieves.

This trend would continue, and it rapidly became apparent that Vergil was not incorrect. In terms of pure skill and ability, the advantage was firmly with Vergil, who was easily outmaneuvering Arkham's every slow swing. About the only thing Arkham had going for it was sheer mass and durability, which ensured he never really staggered and that he took the blows Vergil was dealing without noticeable damage.

After a couple of minutes of this, Arkham suddenly shot what could only be described as a blue, thick looking faceless slug out of him, one which appeared to be spewing blood. The slug flew toward Vergil, and he took a second to slash at the thing, chopping it in half. Arkham, however, used this distraction, and sunk into the ground, vanishing from view.

Vergil paused a moment to look around, as out of the ground, large numbers of slugs, this time with actual horns and mouths, appeared in front of him. Putting his katana on his belt, he summoned Cerberus, and started rapidly swinging, each slug dying in a single blow. They continued to appear, and after a good dozen of them died, they all circled around him, far enough away to be out of easy melee range. Then, as one, they advanced on him. Vergil just shook his head, and threw his hand to his side.

Next to him, an exact copy of Vergil appeared. Each of them started swinging their katanas, lining up so they were back to back with each other. Together, they made short work of the remaining slugs. The copy vanished once the last slug died. He sensed movement above him, and teleported forward as Arkham fell from above, attempting to physically fall on Vergil.

"Is that honestly the best you have? With all of your supposed power?" Vergil asked.

Arkham roared, and dozens of faceless slugs shot out of his back. They all shot at him at different intervals, and Vergil busied himself chopping them out of the air. While he was busy with this, Arkham lunged at him with one of his arms. Vergil saw it coming, but did not have the proper time to counter it. He held up his sheath to try to take some of the hit.

The arm never reached him, as suddenly, half of it came flying off, falling next to Vergil.

"What?" Arkham yelled. Vergil looked up, and failed to suppress the shock on his face as he saw Dante standing there, holding his sword.

"Damn you!" Arkham yelled as he staggered backward.

"Dante!?" Vergil yelled, wrapping his head around the fact that he was standing here, and not dead. Dante took a look at Vergil and shook his head. "But how!?"

"I'm hurt, bro. Really, I am." He pointed his sword at Arkham. "You really thought I was going to let myself get killed by  _this_ guy? Seriously?"

Vergil's face returned to his usual stoic expression, although he still failed to suppress a small grin, as he sensed what was about to happen next. "I suppose I shouldn't have. After all, I would have had to make sure you never lived it down. "Here lies Dante, killed by a blob.""

Dante nodded. "Besides." His expression became more serious. "You and I. We still have unfinished business."

Vergil nodded back. "And we will resolve it. But first..."

"Time to take out the trash."

The two turned toward Arkham, slowly walking toward him as one. Arkham looked, at least as well as a blob could, between them.

"Do you think you can defeat  _me?_ Defeat the power of your father, the great Sparda?"

"You are a fool if you still believe you have any true mastery over Sparda's power." Vergil said.

"I do gotta say, I find this hilarious. I didn't think when I came here that I was gonna find out you'd managed to turn yourself into a  _literal_  shitface." The two brothers then charged, each running to opposite sides of Arkham.

Suffice it to say, the fight didn't last very long after that. The addition of Dante turned what was already an uneven matchup into a one sided beatdown. Arkham, being limited by his form, attempted to repeat the same moves he used against Vergil alone, and naturally, this proved highly ineffective.

Once he had been beaten on for another minute or two, Vergil shifted into his demon form. While Dante distracted Arkham, Vergil charged his power in the same way he had before. Once charged, Dante leaped out of the way as Vergil vanished, delivering a hundred cuts to Arkham at once. He sheathed his blade, and Arkham staggered backward, visibly wounded and clearly near death, but not quite dead. Vergil shifted out of his demon form as he looked to Dante.

"Care to finish him off?"

"Damn, bro, I have to take your sloppy seconds?" Dante shook his head, then spun his guns as he drew them.

"It can't be!" Arkham yelled, lashing out in desperation at Dante, and managing to knock one of the guns out of his hand. Vergil caught the gun, stepping next to Dante. He held out his hand for the gun back, but Vergil shook his head no.

"Wait." Dante said. "You're actually going to use one? What happened to "Guns are uncultured weapons that only unskilled brutes use?"" Dante said, adopting an obvious parody of Vergil's voice

Vergil took a moment to consider this before pointing it. "I'll try it your way for once. And speaking of things we said in the past...there's one word I'm thinking of right now. You remember it?"

Dante smirked at the memory as they lined up the shot.

"Don't do it!" Arkham yelled. Then, as one, the brothers spoke.

"Jackpot!"

They fired the guns, both bullets, having been channeled with their combined demonic energy, striking him and causing him to start to disintegrate.

"Better hope I never tell your new girlfriend about what you said about people who use guns, by the way." Dante said with a chuckle as Vergil tossed him back the gun.

"We're not dating."

"Not after I tell her that, you won't be."

The moment of levity passed, and the two looked at each other as Arkham vanished. In the center of the room, a hole opened, and where Arkham had stood, a plain looking sword and the two amulet halves appeared, and fell through it.

"It's time." Vergil said. Dante shook his head.

"Not here. Place is ugly as hell. Let's find a better spot." Dante slowly walked to the center of the room, and jumped backward into the hole. Vergil shook his head, then followed him down the hole.


	13. A Fated Duel

Outside of the hellgate, Mary finished her assent to the top of the tower, and looked around her. The sky was pitch black, even ignoring the hellgate in the sky, she could feel the creepy tension in the air. This was not helped by the set of 7 bells that were hanging around the circle, each representing one of the seven deadly sins. She adjusted the strap on her missile launcher, and prepared to…..stand around and do nothing while she waited. As she started to consider whenever or not she'd have been better served waiting down at the tower entrance, she caught sight of a figure up above

Arkham, having been defeated, found himself falling out of the hellgate, screaming all the way down, hundreds of feet, to the top of the tower below. He lay still for a moment before his hands started moving.

"Why?" He asked out loud in a pained voice. "How could I….."

He trailed off, and started to crawl forward, leaving behind a large blood trail as he moved toward the edge of the tower

"I shall become a god….." He continued saying out loud. "No one here can stop me!"

As if in direct response to this, a pair of red combat boots entered Arkham's vision. He slowly looked up to see Mary pointing a pistol at his face, a hardened glare on her own.

"All this time, I've been chasing you. Years. And in the end, once I'd finally stopped, you come to me. I was content to let them kill you. But, I'm glad it ended this way. It should be me who puts an end to your madness. Perhaps it's fate."

"Mary…." He moaned.

"You took everything away from me. And you won't be forgiven for that."

She cocked back the hammer on her pistol.

"Wait!" Arkham said as loudly as he could. "Please. Do you really want to shoot me?  _Can_  you shoot me? Your own father?"

Mary's face did not waver. "The man I knew as my father is dead. He died along with my mother, and the life I once knew. You? You're just a monster, walking around in his skin."

Arkham's eyes grew wide with rage, and even with a gaping chest wound, he still found the strength to rant.

"What have I done wrong!? Even the heroic Sparda sacrificed a woman so that he could become a  _legend!"_

Mary closed her eyes, bracing herself.

"I wished to be a  _god!_ And I sacrificed one  _miserable_  human being for that reason. That is all. Was that really so awful?"

A long moment passed. Mary had no words, frankly, she wasn't sure she trusted herself to speak without losing it, and she wasn't going to give him one last victory before he died.

"I have some unfinished business to take care of." He reached toward her. "Help me, Mary….."

She took a deep breath, and opened her eyes. "If there's anything left of the man I once knew, in there….I'm going to set you free. I'll bring you peace. And….I'll morn for you."

Her finger tightened on the trigger.

"Goodbye, father…."

Sensing the end, Arkham's eyes widened one last time.

"NOOOOOO-"

A gunshot rang out, and his arm fell. Then a second, and a third. Mary kept shooting, until Arkham's head was reduced to pulp, until the slide of her gun slid back and she ran out of ammo. Then, she staggered backward, and fell to the ground, beginning to laugh, intermingled with sobs. Eventually, she spoke.

"It….it's finally over….I wish I could have done more….I'm sorry…."

She looked up at the hellgate.

"Please…..be safe…."

* * *

They fell into a shallow river. On one end, water flowed out of a hole that was covered by various pillars that blocked easy passage into it. On the sides and the other end, the world extended into a dark, black abyss that the water was flowing into. The only light was provided by a large eyeball looking sphere on the far end of the river.

Sparda's sword and the amulets fell between the two. Vergil walked forward, grabbing the amulets out of the river, but ignoring the sword. Dante raised an eyebrow.

"Not picking it up?" He asked, motioning to the sword.

"That would hardly make it a fair contest, now, would it?"

"Should have known. You always did have a hard on for all that honorable combat shit."

The two stared each other down.

"You remember the terms of our agreement?"

"Winners rule, losers drool?"

"Hmmmm….something like that.

Vergil reached for his blade, grabbed it, and unsheathed it an inch before swiftly resheathing it. An orb of energy surrounded Dante, and he quickly slid out of the way before it erupted into slashes. He did not stop, and held his blade point first in front of him as he approached Vergil. Vergil made a motion with his blade, deflecting the blade away and upward. He then swung his sheath, wacking Dante upside the head with it twice before attempting to unsheath his blade and strike him. Dante, just in time, managed to block the strike, although it drove him back several feet.

Dante then grabbed his blade in a new grip. Vergil readied himself, but did not foresee Dante literally throwing the blade like a boomerang at him. Vergil swung at it, deflecting it away, and in this period, Dante drew his pistols and started firing them. Vergil started swinging his sheath in front of himself to deflect them, only to suddenly stagger as Dante's sword came back around and struck him in the back. This also threw off his timing for deflecting the bullets, and he took several hits, raising his arm up to try to defend himself.

Dante's blade came spinning back toward him, and he rushed forward, catching it in mid flight. He was close enough now, as Vergil recovered, to strike, and spun his sword in a circular motion in front of him several times, slashes that Vergil blocked. Then he held his sword point first again, and started to make super fast, repeated stabbing attempts, rapidly moving his sword back and forth as he tried to turn Vergil into a pincushion.

Rather then attempt to block, Vergil responded to this with his own series of rapid slashes with his katana, and each blow rebounded off of each other, creating a considerable amount of sparks. This continued for several seconds, before each of them delivered a final, stronger blow, resulting in both of them getting pushed backward. They both came to a halt.

"Time to-

"-get serious?"

Both of the brothers shared a grin, before, as one, they shifted into their demonic forms. Vergil acted first, once again forming orbs of energy, only this time he created 4 of them, back to back. Dante, however, seemed to have learned this move's timing, and raised his hands up, blocking the damage of the first 3 orbs before suddenly vanishing as the forth one appeared. He reappeared above Vergil, and tried to cleave him in half vertically. Vergil responded to this by swinging his sword upward while jumping, deflecting the blow and knocking Dante back into the air as he followed him.

Vergil continued to swing at Dante in midair, swings which he blocked as easily as he had the orbs. Dante then vanished again, reappearing on the ground, and held out his sword in front of him, spinning it vertically like a saw blade. Vergil was forced to land out of melee range due to this, and both of them dropped their demon forms, energy expended. Dante lifted his sword, holding it behind him and reversing the grip.

Red electricity surrounded it, and he swung it, sending a shockwave at Vergil, one he evaded by teleporting. Dante sent a second one, and Vergil teleported again. But this time, Dante had a plan, and aimed at where he anticipated Vergil would appear, and fired a third shockwave there. Vergil reappeared right in the path of it, and the attack hit him full force, sending him flying back. He rolled to his feet, only to see Dante's blade hurttleing toward him again like a boomerang. He deflected it away, then quickly spun to hit it again before it hit him from behind.

He turned around, and within the span of that half second, Dante was directly in front of him and extending his arm, preparing to unleash his stored energy. Vergil leaned to the side, and dodged the blow with inches to spare. He could feel the energy from the missed blow rush past him as he sheathed his blade, and started to redraw it. Dante's eyes widened, seeing what was about to happen but unable to do anything about it. Then Vergil's blade came out, cutting deep into Dante's chest and sending him flying across the river, coming to a halt near the end of it that extended into darkness, and lay still. Then, he started to laugh.

"Well, that's that then. You're the big winner, Vergil. The cool hero."

"Dante…."

Dante started to get up, clutching his chest. "You always wanted to be father. And now you're strong enough to do it. Good for you. You got the power, the skills, you got a hot chick waiting for you back home. But you don't need me, holding you back."

"That's not true!"

"Don't worry about it." Dante said as he staggered backward. "It's fine. I always knew the score. So go on. Get out of here. Go be the hero, and forget about me "

He let himself fall backward, and fell. Then he jerked to a halt as Vergil's hand grabbed his shoe.

"No, Dante!"

"Damn it, Vergil, let go!"

"No! This is not how it ends! I didn't come all this way to watch you wallow in self pity and give up!"

"Damn, that's a little harsh."

"You  _will_ return with me! You believe yourself a burden? Then work to better yourself!"

"You know I'm lazy as all hell."

"Perhaps." Then Vergil grinned. "But there's one thing you have yet to consider."

"What's that?

"There's no pizza in the demon world."

A second passed before Dante replied. "Damn it. You  _had_ to go and remind me of that. I'm here, trying to have a big, dramatic moment, and you have to steal my spotlight and make me change my mind with pizza. Alright, come on, get me up."

Vergil chuckled, then lifted Dante back onto the waterfall. He rose to his feet, and shook his head as they started walking.

"This is going to be a serious pain in the ass. You know that?"

"I wouldn't have it any other way for you."

"Asshole"

"Hardhead."

"Prick."

"Punk."

They halted in front of Sparda's sword.

"So." Dante said. "What do we do with this?"

Vergil drew the sword, examining it closely as he considered the question. Then, he took out Dante's half of the amulet, and threw it to him.

"Don't you need this?" Dante asked as he caught it.

"I would, yes. Without both stones connected, the sword is just that. A sword, nothing more. It is our birthright, and ours to take. But its power is not needed this day. And so it will remain with us, sealed. Each of us will keep our halves of the amulet. And if the day ever comes where this power is needed, we will make that decision. Together."

Dante shook his head. "That's a lot of responsibility you're putting on me."

"Indeed, it is. But I trust you will live up to the task."

Dante shrugged. "No pressure, right?" He chuckled.

"So." Vergil said. "I suppose we have to consider now, what we do next."

"About that….had a thought.

"Go on."

"How would you feel about starting a business?"


	14. Aftermath

The two brothers exited the hellgate and found themselves back on the tower. The hellgate itself appeared to be shrinking and closing, something Vergil speculated was due to the separation of the two amulets. It would not be long now until it closed for good. Vergil looked around, and spotting Mary standing at the edge of the tower, staring at the sunrise.

"I'll just leave you two lovebirds alone, give you some privacy."

Vergil turned to protest, and Dante raised his hands in the air.

"I ain't going far, don't worry." He walked away, down the first set of steps off of the tower. Vergil shook his head, walked around Arkham's dead body, and came to a halt next to Mary.

"You're back." She said, still looking at the sunrise. "Did you manage to-"

"I did."

"Good. I'm glad. It would have been a shame if we had both lost the last of our family today."

Vergil put a hand on her shoulder. "There was nothing you could have done for him."

"I know. It still hurts."

They stood together for a long moment, staring at the sunrise.

"So." Mary eventually said. "About us..." Vergil turned to her, expression unreadable. "I...lots of things happened today. And...I need time, to adjust. I don't want to go too fast. It's going to sound super cliche, but it's not you, it's me. I'm not sure I'm ready for a serious relationship, so soon after...this. So, I think I'd like to be just friends for now."

"Friends?" Vergil asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Close friends." She quickly corrected. "Very, very close friends. But still friends."

Vergil took a moment to ponder this, then shrugged. "As you wish. I'd hardly be able to force you to do anything you didn't want anyway, Son of Sparda or not."

She chuckled. "That's true. But, speaking of things I want, there is one thing I'd like to do, at least once, while we're up here."

The two turned toward each other, closed their eyes, and went in for a kiss. They embraced, and after a couple of seconds, the sound of a wolf howl broke the silence, made by Dante, who was poking his head up above the last steps of the tower. Without stopping the kiss, Mary reached for her pistol and aimed in the general direction of Dante, firing a bullet. He quickly ducked back below the steps and out of view. Then, they broke apart, both of them looking annoyed.

"I am  _so_ going to kick his ass when I get my hands on him!" Mary said, her face turning red as she clenched her fists.

"Only once I'm done with him." Vergil said.

Another moment passed, and Mary put her gun away.

"So, have you decided what you will do next?" Vergil asked.

"Well, I still have a job to do that's far from done. To eliminate every last demon."

"A childish, unachievable dream."

Mary gave a sad smile. "I know."

"Still, so far as dreams and goals go...it's a worthy one."

"What about you?"

"Dante wants to open a business."

Mary turned toward Vergil, clearly interested in hearing this. "A business? What kind?"

"Demon slaying."

"Don't you do that already?"

"He wants something a bit more legitimate then wandering the world. My brother is lazy, you see, probably just wants to avoid the walking. But even so, it's one of his better ideas."

Mary nodded. "I agree. So, what kind of assets are you two working with?"

Vergil gave her a long stare. "Assets?"

"How much money do you have?"

Vergil reached into his coat, and withdrew a large stack of bills. He started counting them, only for Mary to grab his wrist.

"Vergil. I don't mean your pocket change. How much money do you have in your bank account?" Another long moment passed, as Vergil was clearly reluctant to respond. Mary crossed her arms, her face demanding a response.

"...I don't have a bank account."

"You... _what?_ How do you not have a bank account?"

"Never needed it."

"So what, you just  _carry_ your money everywhere?" Mary asked, face disbelieving.

"Can you think of a better spot? What fool would try to rob  _me?"_

"Ok, I'll give you that much" She said, holding her hands up. "But still, do you have any idea how much an office costs?"

"...No."

"More than what you're carrying in your pocket, that's for sure!"

"It was Dante's idea, not mine."

"And how much money do you think your lazy brother has?" Vergil did not respond, as good a response for her as any. "If you're going to open a real business that's not just you walking around at random, you're going to have to start thinking about these kinds of things!" She said, waging a finger in his face.

"We still haven't worked out the finer details..."

"Asking "Can I afford an office" is not a  _finer detail!"_  She said, placing her hands on her hips before shaking her head. "I can already tell I have a lot of work to do with you." She reached into one of her pouches, withdrawing a piece of paper and a pen. She wrote a number on it, then held it out to Vergil.

"Here, this is my cell phone number. I'm in no condition to have this conversation now, and frankly, as soon as I get back to the hotel, I'm probably going to crash for the whole day. So, wait until tomorrow, then call me, and we'll discuss the details of getting your business off the ground." He stared at the paper, not taking it and looking slightly sheepish. "What? What's wrong?"

"I...don't have-"

"Don't you  _dare_ tell me you don't even own a phone!"

"I've never had anyone I needed to call, what use would I have for-"

Mary groaned loudly, and took the paper back, angerly scribbling an address on it. "I can't believe this. I knew you were old fashioned, but I didn't think it was  _this_ bad! You're lucky I like you, I  _should_ just leave you to run yourself into mounds of debt and learn the "Old fashioned" way!"

She finished writing the address, and shoved it into Vergil's chest. "That's where my hotel is. Take some time, be with your brother. In three days, since knowing you, you're going to  _walk_ all the way there-" She waited long enough for Vergil to sheepishly shrug. "Getting you a license is something  _else_  we'll need to work on, you can't just walk everywhere. Anyway, in three days, I expect to see you there."

Vergil cocked his head to the side. "You want me to meet you. At a hotel. Are you  _sure_ you want to take this slow? Because you realize when a woman asks a man to meet him at a hotel, it usually means-"

This earned Vergil a blood curdling glare, one that caused even him to pause and reconsider finishing the sentence.

"Three days, Mr." She then poked him in the chest. "And bring a  _phone!_ I don't care if you get some cheap pre-paid flip phone, but if you don't come with one, I'm dragging you by the  _ear_ to get the most expensive phone I can find, and saddling your business with the bill!"

She stormed off, and Vergil shook his head, wondering what hell he had accidentally unleashed on himself. Then he heard a hard impact, and Dante yelped.

"Owwww! Shit, did you really have to punch me in the face?"

"You're lucky it wasn't a gunshot! I know you can survive it, that means I can do it and not feel  _any_ guilt at all!"

After another few seconds, Dante walked back up the steps, walking over to Vergil. "Sure know how to pick em. She's scarier than the demons."

"Perhaps, but you  _did_ more or less ask for it."

They both took a moment to shake their heads.

"So." Dante said. "Time for a fresh start."

"A new beginning."

"Think we'll get work?"

"Chances are good." Vergil said with a nod. "Even though we closed the portal, there is still a chance that demon attacks around the world will increase, as a result of the events here, at least for a while."

"Least we won't be bored."

"That much, I believe I can promise you."

They turned, and started walking away.

"You know, bro, we're gonna need a name for this place. And I was never any good with names."

"Hmmmm..." Vergil took a moment to consider this question.

"Actually, I think I may have one."


	15. A New Beginning

One month later

The brothers stood outside of the newly finished shop. Vergil, with some small assistance from Mary, had been hard at work for the last couple of weeks furnishing the building. Dante had not been involved, and in fact Vergil had not even told him where the office was until today. He wanted it to be a surprise.

They now stood side by side, Dante in a slightly different red coat with a black vest now covering his chest. Among the first of Vergil's demands had been that Dante dress properly, and he had refused to be seen in public with him until Dante gave into the demands. Dante was now covering his eyes, which were closed.

"How much longer I gotta stand here and wait?"

"Just one more moment." Vergil said as he walked over and turned on the power. "Ok, you can look now."

He opened his eyes, and saw that the front of the building had been done up in such a way that it looked like a regal manor. Up above the door, a blue neon sign was lit up, with the new shop's name of "Devil May Cry".

"Nice. Love the neon sign, by the way."

"I thought you'd appreciate that." Vergil had decided already not to tell Dante that the only reason he had gone with a neon sign is that it was the only thing he could get commissioned on such short notice. He wasn't terribly pleased with it, but maybe it'd grow on him.

"Let's move this inside."

The two entered the shop, and the theme of fancy regal manor continued, from the walls, to the chandeliers, to the desk, to the bookcases stacked with various books on demonology, even the display mounts which had a combination of conventional arms picked by Mary and Vergil's demonic devil arms looked fancy. In the middle of the large room sat a staircase that led upstairs to a large balcony area, and around the room were various unmarked doors that led elsewhere. Dante looked around, nodding.

"I can see what you were going for, bro. Feels like home, don't it?"

"It is our home now, Dante. And you will be expected to clean up after yourself. I will not have pizza stains on the furniture."

"No promises." At that moment, a knock came at the door. Vergil turned to get it, but Dante quickly ran in front of him.

"No no, that's for me " Vergil raised an eyebrow as Dante opened the door, was handed 2 pizzas, and paid the man.

"Where did you find the time to arrange for a delivery before we even got here?"

"Did it while you were on the can." He went to drop it on the desk, but Vergil caught the boxes and placed them on a small table next to the desk that had a slightly cheaper look.

"Your pizzas go there."

"Shit, you went through the trouble of buying me a pizza table? I'm touched."

"I just don't want sauce on the furniture."

Dante flopped into the desk chair while Vergil took a seat on a sofa off to the side.

"So. Kinda don't wanna ask, but, I gotta." Dante asked between bites. "How the hell did you swing this? How much is the rent going to be on this monster?"

"Rent? We don't rent, brother. We own this office "

Dante choked on his pizza, and had to take a moment to clear his throat. "You're shitting me."

"Have you ever known me to joke about this kind of thing?" Vergil asked as he held up a deed.

"….How the hell did you get a loan for this place? What bank did you go to?"

"Several. Apparently I have no credit, so I was turned down by them all."

"So…..how the hell did you pay for this?"

"I took out a personal loan."

"Personal…..no no no, bro, don't tell me you went to a loan shark. Please don't tell me that, we might need to change our names if you did that."

"I wouldn't call her that to her face, unless you like the idea of being shot again."

"I don't like the idea of a bunch of mafia goons trying to bang down our door and-" Dante trailed off. Vergil just reached for a glass of wine next to him, and took a sip, smirking. "Wait. Shot again? Vergil…..you didn't…."

He continued to smirk as the roar of a motorcycle became audible, halting in front of the office.

"You put us in debt to HER!?" He yelled. A second later, the door opened, and Mary entered, looking around.

"I like what you've done with the place, Vergil."

"Did you see the name?"

"I did, don't think I don't remember where you got that. I should charge you royalties every time you use it." She said, wagging her finger with a smirk. She reached over, grabbing the deed out of Vergil's hand. "Thank you, I'll just hold onto this until you pay me back my money."

"As you wish."

"Neon sign's kinda tacky, though, don't you think?"

"Hey, hey, don't hate on the sign!" Dante turned to Vergil. "I can't believe you did this and didn't even ask me first!"

"Didn't we agree that you couldn't be bothered to handle the finances, and I should deal with it?"

"Yes, but you should still ask before you take out a loan from your scary girlfriend!"

"We're not dating." Both Vergil and Mary said at the same time.

"All I'm saying, is that they have a saying about this situation, Vergil. "Bros before-""

"Finish that sentence and you'll regret ever being born male." Mary said, giving her rocket launcher's bayonet an unsubtle look.

"I can't believe you'd do this to me, Vergil."

Vergil was still smirking as he sipped at his wine again.

"So." She turned to Vergil. "My things are in the saddlebags outside. I have someone bringing the rest of my boxes later, but where should I unpack?"

"Up the stairs, straight back, you have your own room, and I took the liberty of installing you a personal bathroom."

"Thank god."

"Woh, hold up a second. Time out." Dante stood up, putting his hands in a T. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Mary chuckled. "You didn't tell him?"

"I was getting to it." Vergil looked over at Dante, who was looking confused. "She'll be joining us as a partner in the business."

"But…don't I get any say in this?"

"No." Both Vergil and Mary said at the same time. Dante reached for a slice of pizza, only for it to be stolen by Mary, who took her time taking a bite.

"Hmmmm….this is good pizza."

"I know. That's why I ordered it for myself." Dante threw up his hands as he grabbed another slice. "Alright, well, if I'm stuck with you, I need to know your name."

"Mary."

Dante shook his head. "That name doesn't suit you at all."

"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Mary said as she leaned in.

"I mean that's way too nice a name for a scary person like you. I ain't using it "

"Screw you!"

"Nope. We gotta think up a better one."

"Vergil! Make him cut it out!"

Vergil shook his head. "I'm afraid he's as hardheaded as you. Once he decides something, there's no changing his mind."

"Hmmmmmm….. problem is I'm not the best with names…"

"Then maybe you should just call people by their real names!"

"Maybe a nickname….Boomer?"

"Sounds too male." Vergil said.

"Shorty?"

"And what if she grows?"

He gave Mary's large bayonet a look. "Bayonetta?"

"That's a bit of a reach, don't you think?"

"Hey!" Both of the brothers blinked, and looked at an outraged Mary. "Don't I get any say in this?"

"No." Both of the brothers said at the same time, causing her to cross her arms.

"Hell, I don't know. You got any ideas, Vergil?"

"Well, for a while she refused to give me her name, and I just called her "Woman".

"Eh, that's a little too…..you."

"I'm a lady, thank you very much!" Mary said as she pointed a finger in Vergil's face.

"Perfect!" Mary looked over at Dante, confused.

"What is?"

"Lady. That's your new name. Nice and short and snappy."

"No!"

Vergil shook his head. "We could always call you Woman"

"You said you thought my name suited me!"

"I reconsidered after looking at your interest rates. Even a demon wouldn't go so far. And didn't you threaten to castrate him a few minutes ago?"

She threw up her hands. "Fine, call me whatever you want!"

"Lady it is." Dante said with a smug grin of victory. "So, Lady, where did you even get the cash to finance this place? Weren't you a little busy to be making a fortune on the side?"

"I had less expenses then you think, mainly ammo, and there was plenty of demons left in his wake that I was happy to clean up for a fee." She said as she took a seat." But no, what happened is that my family had considerable sums of money, before everything happened. He never touched it, he knew I was monitoring the account for any hint of his location. They discovered his body, and as it turns out, he never bothered to alter the will. So I inherited everything. House, bank account, a couple of stocks…."

"Some people just have all the luck."

"I wouldn't call what happened "Lucky"."

"Oh, er…." Dante scratched the back of his head. "Sorry…."

"Well, I can't change it, but I'll be making the most of what I got. I sold the house, and that's the money Vergil got from his loan."

"So what you're saying…" Dante reached for his pizza. "Is you can afford your own pizza."

"Now why would I order my own when I can just take yours?"

Suddenly, the sounds of breaking glass sounded through the room. However, rather then a window breaking, various black robed demons holding scythes leaped out of thin air, landing in the office. Dante and Vergil slowly got to their feet.

"That time again? Alright, bro, new month, score's reset."

"Think you can beat me this time?"

"Damn straight."

Mary looked at their unconcerned reactions. "This happen often around here?"

"We are sometimes attacked by demons, due to who our father is." Vergil explained. "With the two of us together, those attacks have become more frequent."

"So, we made a game out of it. Every month, we tally up who gets the most kills, and they're Employee of the Month."

Mary smirked, walking up next to them. "I like that idea. Count me in." She reached for her rocket launcher.

"Not in the office!" Vergil yelled at her. Slowly, she took her hand off of it and drew her normal pistols.

"You're no fun." She sulked at him. Dante, meanwhile, just laughed.

"You sure you can keep up?" Dante asked.

"We could always offer her a handicap." Vergil said "Each of her kills counts for two of-"

A pair of gunshots rang out, and two demons fell dead.

"Too slow, two for me! Take that handicap and stuff it!"

"Hey, you can't jump the gun, Lady!" Dante complained. "That's breaking the rules!"

Two more demons fell to gunshots. "I can't hear you over the sound of you losing!"

Vergil and Dante picked up their weapons.

"Hey, we still have to say the line!" Dante yelled.

"Oh my god, I thought you were kidding about that, Vergil."

"Why does everyone continue to assume I am joking?"

"You're the straight man, bro, that's why."

"But it's so cheesy!"

"If I have to say it, you do."

Dante knelt down in front of Mary and Vergil, holding his guns sideways, while Mary pointed hers in a more standard manner and Vergil entered an Iaido stance.

"Alright." Dante said. "Together now!"

"Let's rock!"


End file.
